• Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Annelida
  • Class: Polychaeta
  • Subclass: Sedentaria
  • Order: Sabellida
  • Family: Sabellidae
  • Scientific name: Sabella pavonina
  • Norwegian: påfuglmark

Characteristics:

The body may reach 30 cm and include as many as 600 segments. The body is protected by a tube with a diameter of 8 mm or less. The feathery crown comes in wide range of colors. Often there are bands of red or orange. The crown retract quickly into the tube when the worm is disturbed.

Habitat:

It is usually seen on hard surfaces on sandy or rocky locations, it is very common on ship wrecks. It is most frequent deeper than 20 meters.

Distribution:

The peacock worm is widespread in the Atlantic Ocean, on both the northern and southern hemispheres.