Conclusion
MALDI-TOF MS was proven an easy to apply, cost-effective and time-saving tool for identification across taxa. It is especially feasible in applications where mere species identification is desired, for example in biodiversity assessments. By the standardized workflow, a wide range of marine metazoan specimens can be identified quantitatively and effectively on species level thereby bypassing some of the high requirements associated with genetic methods, such as access to special laboratories, searching for primers etc. We want to highlight here that proteomic fingerprinting will be due to its simplicity, reliability and efficiency a valuable supplement to the molecular toolbox for taxonomy.