Buddenbrockia plumatellae

Taxobox
name = Buddenbrockia plumatellae
regnum = Animalia
unranked_phylum = Radiata
phylum = Cnidaria
unranked_classis = Myxozoa
classis = Malacosporea
genus = "Buddenbrockia"
species = "B. plumatellae"
binomial = "Buddenbrockia plumatellae"
binomial_authority = Schröder O., 1910
synonyms ="Tetracapsula bryozoides" Canning, Okamura & Curry, 1996

"Buddenbrokia plumatellae" is a parasitic worm whose taxonomic placement long puzzled biologists. It is now classified as one of the only two myxozoans of class Malacosporea on the basis of both genetic and ultrastructural studies. It was the first multicellular myxozoan identified and its vermiform shape gave strong support to the theory that the enigmatic group belongs among the Bilateria. [cite journal
author = Okamura, B.
coauthors = Curry, A.; Wood, T.S.; Canning, E.U.
month = Feb
year = 2002
title = Ultrastructure of Buddenbrockia identifies it as a myxozoan and verifies the bilaterian origin of the Myxozoa
journal = Parasitology
volume = 124
issue = 02
pages = 215–223
doi = 10.1017/S0031182001001184 ] [cite journal
last = Montiero
first = Ana Sara
coauthors = Beth Okamura and Peter W. H. Holland
month = Jun
year = 2002
title = Orphan Worm Finds a Home: Buddenbrockia is a Myxozoan
journal = Molecular Biology and Evolution
volume = 19
pages = 968–971
url = http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/19/6/968
accessdate = 2007-02-07
pmid = 12032254] Five years later, this was refuted by a study of fifty genes from this same "worm", which had rarely been even seen since its discovery in 1851.cite web
title=When is a worm not a worm? When it's a jellyfish.
url=http://www.oxtrust.org.uk/news/290481
publisher=The Oxford Trust
accessdate = 2007-07-13] The genes resemble those of jellyfish and sea anemones, typical members of a more primitive animal group, the Radiata. [cite journal
jorunal=Science
date=6 Jul 2007
volume=317
issue=5834
pages=116–118
doi=10.1126/science.1142024
title=Buddenbrockia Is a Cnidarian Worm
author=E. Jiménez-Guri, H. Philippe, B. Okamura & P.W.H. Holland
journal=Science
pmid=17615357] One of the researchers talked about the problems encountered studying its morphology: “It has no mouth, no gut, no brain and no nerve cord. It doesn’t have a left or right side or a top or bottom – we can’t even tell which end is the front!” Because the myxozoans are so different from their nearest relatives, he concluded that “the worm-like body shape evolved at least twice from two completely different kinds of animal.”

References