The Oweniidae consist of five genera of tubiculous polychaetes occurring in all oceans from tropical topolarareas: Owenia Delle Chiaje, 1842, Myriochele Malmgren, 1867, Galathowenia Kirkegaard, 1959, Myriowenia Hartrnan, 1960 and Myrioglobula Hartrnan, 1967. The group is regarded as monophyletic based on the presence of dense fields of bidentate neuropodial hooks. Fourteen species were submitted to a cladistic analysis in PAUP 3.1.1 with the usage of 19 morphological characters.The taxonomic status of the ingroup taxa could be evaluated and it has been found that: (1) Owenia, Myriowenia and Myrioglobula are monophyletic, and (2) Myriochele, and Galathowenia are both paraphyletic taxa.
Polychaeta; Oweniidae; phylogeny; systematics