Over the last couple of years colleagues several previously unknown benthopelagic and pelagic polychaetes which superficially resemble flabelligerids have been discovered. There are several unsolved questions of historical relationships and homology among flabelligerids, or more broadly in Cirratuliformia. This project will describe the new taxa, use molecular and morphological characters to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships of the known and new taxa, and examine the morphological and ecological changes that took place during the transition(s?) from living on the seafloor (benthic) to living up in the water column (pelagic).