Gephyrea is a now-dismantled class of marine worms, containing the three modern taxa Echiura, Sipuncula, and Priapulida.
[1] Also Sternaspis, the first described genus in the family Sternaspidae, was at some point assumed to be related to Echiura and therefore included in the Gephyrea.
Priapulida are now considered a distinct phylum among Ecdysozoa, while the other two taxa are classified as Annelids.
The word was created by Quatrefages[3] from the Greek γέφυρα (géphura) 'bridge', because these animals seemed intermediate between Annelids and Holothurians.
[4] This protostome-related article is a stub.