| Planulozoa Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Diversity of planulozoans | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Subkingdom: | |
| (unranked): | |
| (unranked): | Planulozoa Wallberg et al., 2004 |
| Phyla | |
Bilateria / Triploblasts (unranked)?
| |
Planulozoa is a clade of animals that includes the superphyla Cnidaria (jellyfish, hydrozoans, sea anemones, corals, etc.) and the Bilateria (all complex animals with bilateral symmetry, including arthropods, molluscs, vertebrates, etc.). [2] [3] The designation Planulozoa may be considered a synonym to ParaHoxozoa, which also contains Placozoa. Within Planulozoa, the Placozoa may be a sister of Cnidaria to the exclusion of Bilateria. [4] [5] [6] [7] The clade excludes basal animals such as the Ctenophora (comb jellies), [8] [9] [3] and Porifera (sponges). [10] [11] [12] Although this clade was sometimes used to specify a clade of Cnidaria and Bilateria to the exclusion of Placozoa (against the original intention of its proposal), this is no longer favoured due to recent data indicating a sister group relationship between Cnidaria and Placozoa, [13] another study still supports Placozoa as sister to Cnidaria+Bilateria. [14]
The phylogenetic tree indicates approximately how many millions of years ago (mya) the lineages split. Here, Planulozoa is shown sans Placozoa. [15] [16] [17]
Planulozoa are associated with the emergence of the Zoc and ZF-NC gene domains. [18]
