| Planulozoa Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
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| Diversity of planulozoans | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Subkingdom: | Eumetazoa |
| Clade: | ParaHoxozoa |
| Clade: | Planulozoa Wallberg et al., 2004 |
| Phyla | |
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Planulozoa is a clade which includes the Placozoa, Cnidaria (corals and jellyfish) and the Bilateria (all the more complex animals including worms, insects and vertebrates). [2] [3] The designation Planulozoa may be considered a synonym to ParaHoxozoa. 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 (several 2018 studies) indicating a sister group relationship between Cnidaria and Placozoa. [13] However, a 2023 study supports Placozoa as sister to Cnidaria+Bilateria in several analyses. [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]
