Centroneuralia

Centroneuralia; Temporal range: Ediacaran - Recent PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
	Diversity of centroneuralians, showcasing vertebrates (Chordata), mollusks (Protostomia, Spiralia) and arthropods (Protostomia, Ecdysozoa)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Subkingdom:	Eumetazoa
Clade:	ParaHoxozoa
Clade:	Bilateria
Clade:	Centroneuralia ; Telford, 2021
Clades
	Chordata ; Protostomia † Kimberella ; Ecdysozoa ; Spiralia ; ;

Last updated September 30, 2025

Centroneuralia is a proposed clade of animals with bilateral symmetry as an embryo, consisting of the Chordata and Protostomia, united by the presence of a central nervous system. An alternative to the traditional protostome-deuterostome dichotomy, it has found weak support in several studies. Under this hypothesis, Centroneuralia would be sister to Xenambulacraria (Xenacoelomorpha + Ambulacraria) at the base of Bilateria.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Centroneuralia, as a proposed clade, originates in phylogenomics. More precisely, recent studies correlate support for Deuterostomia with simpler, site-homogeneous models, while more sophisticated and site-heterogeneous models recover Centroneuralia more often.^[1]

Phylogeny

Bilateria

Xenambulacraria

	Xenacoelomorpha

	Ambulacraria

Centroneuralia

Chordata

Protostomia

	Ecdysozoa

	Spiralia

	† Kimberella

References

1 2 Kapli, Paschalia; Natsidis, Paschalis; Leite, Daniel J.; Fursman, Maximilian; Jeffrie, Nadia; Rahman, Imran A.; Philippe, Hervé; Copley, Richard R.; Telford, Maximilian J. (2021-03-19). "Lack of support for Deuterostomia prompts reinterpretation of the first Bilateria". Science Advances. 7 (12) eabe2741. Bibcode:2021SciA....7.2741K. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abe2741. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 7978419 . PMID 33741592.
↑ Marlétaz, Ferdinand; Peijnenburg, Katja T.C.A.; Goto, Taichiro; Satoh, Noriyuki; Rokhsar, Daniel S. (2019-01-21). "A New Spiralian Phylogeny Places the Enigmatic Arrow Worms among Gnathiferans". Current Biology. 29 (2): 312–318.e3. Bibcode:2019CBio...29E.312M. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.11.042 . PMID 30639106.
↑ Philippe, Hervé; Poustka, Albert J.; Chiodin, Marta; Hoff, Katharina J.; Dessimoz, Christophe; Tomiczek, Bartlomiej; Schiffer, Philipp H.; Müller, Steven; Domman, Daryl; Horn, Matthias; Kuhl, Heiner (2019-06-03). "Mitigating Anticipated Effects of Systematic Errors Supports Sister-Group Relationship between Xenacoelomorpha and Ambulacraria". Current Biology. 29 (11): 1818–1826.e6. Bibcode:2019CBio...29E1818P. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.009 . hdl: 21.11116/0000-0004-DC4B-1 . ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 31104936.
↑ Natsidis, Paschalis (2022-05-28). Systematic errors in phylogenomics with a focus on the major metazoan clade Deuterostomia (PhD). University College London.

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[telford-1] 1 2 Kapli, Paschalia; Natsidis, Paschalis; Leite, Daniel J.; Fursman, Maximilian; Jeffrie, Nadia; Rahman, Imran A.; Philippe, Hervé; Copley, Richard R.; Telford, Maximilian J. (2021-03-19). "Lack of support for Deuterostomia prompts reinterpretation of the first Bilateria". Science Advances. 7 (12) eabe2741. Bibcode:2021SciA....7.2741K. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abe2741. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 7978419 . PMID 33741592.

[gnathifera-2] Marlétaz, Ferdinand; Peijnenburg, Katja T.C.A.; Goto, Taichiro; Satoh, Noriyuki; Rokhsar, Daniel S. (2019-01-21). "A New Spiralian Phylogeny Places the Enigmatic Arrow Worms among Gnathiferans". Current Biology. 29 (2): 312–318.e3. Bibcode:2019CBio...29E.312M. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.11.042 . PMID 30639106.

[philippe-3] Philippe, Hervé; Poustka, Albert J.; Chiodin, Marta; Hoff, Katharina J.; Dessimoz, Christophe; Tomiczek, Bartlomiej; Schiffer, Philipp H.; Müller, Steven; Domman, Daryl; Horn, Matthias; Kuhl, Heiner (2019-06-03). "Mitigating Anticipated Effects of Systematic Errors Supports Sister-Group Relationship between Xenacoelomorpha and Ambulacraria". Current Biology. 29 (11): 1818–1826.e6. Bibcode:2019CBio...29E1818P. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.009 . hdl: 21.11116/0000-0004-DC4B-1 . ISSN 0960-9822. PMID 31104936.

[4] Natsidis, Paschalis (2022-05-28). Systematic errors in phylogenomics with a focus on the major metazoan clade Deuterostomia (PhD). University College London.

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