Tree Of Animal Life Has Branches Rearranged, By Evolutionary Biologists

March 7, 2008 at 1:29 am · Filed under Biologists, Branches, By, Evolutionary, Rearranged, Tree Of Animal Life

From: Boston University
The study, which appears in Nature, settles some long-standing debates about the relationships between major groups of animals and offers up a few surprises.

The big shocker: Comb jellyfish — common and extremely fragile jellies with well-developed tissues — appear to have diverged from other animals even before the lowly sponge, which has no tissue to speak of. This finding calls into question the very root of the animal tree of life, which traditionally placed sponges at the base.
“This finding suggests either that comb jellies evolved their complexity independently from other animals, or that sponges have become greatly simplified through the course of evolution. If corroborated by other types of evidence, this would significantly change the way we think about the earliest multicellular animals,” said Dunn, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown. “Coming up with these surprises, and trying to better understand the relationships between living things, made this project so fascinating.”[+]

Source ENN

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