Perspectives in Animal Phylogeny and Evolution: A decade later

Abstract

Refinements in phylogenomic methods and novel data have clarified several controversies in animal phylogeny that were intractable with traditional PCR-based approaches or early Next Gen analyses. An alliance between Placozoa and Cnidaria has recently found support. Data from newly discovered species of Xenoturbella contribute to Xenacoelomorpha being placed as sister group of Nephrozoa rather than within the deuterostomes. Molecular data reinforce the monophyly of Gnathifera and ally the longenigmatic chaetognaths with them. Platyzoa was an artefactual grouping, and deep relationships within Spiralia now depict Rouphozoa (= Gastrotricha + Platyhelminthes) as sister group to Lophotrochozoa, and Gnathifera (plus Chaetognatha) their immediate sister group. A “divide and conquer” strategy of subsampling clades to optimize gene selection may be needed to simultaneously resolve the many disparate clades of the animal tree of life