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Error, signal, and the placement of Ctenophora sister to all other animals

2015; National Academy of Sciences; Volume: 112; Issue: 18 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1073/pnas.1503453112

1091-6490

Nathan V. Whelan, Kevin M. Kocot, Leonid L. Moroz, Kenneth M. Halanych,

Planarian Biology and Electrostimulation

Significance Traditional interpretation of animal phylogeny suggests traits, such as mesoderm, muscles, and neurons, evolved only once given the assumed placement of sponges as sister to all other animals. In contrast, placement of ctenophores as the first branching animal lineage raises the possibility of multiple origins of many complex traits considered important for animal diversification and success. We consider sources of potential error and increase taxon sampling to find a single, statistically robust placement of ctenophores as our most distant animal relatives, contrary to the traditional understanding of animal phylogeny. Furthermore, ribosomal protein genes are identified as creating conflict in signal that caused some past studies to recover a sister relationship between ctenophores and cnidarians.