- Platyzoa
Taxobox
name = Platyzoa
image_width = 200px
image_caption = Bedford's Flatworm, "Pseudobiceros bedfordi"
regnum =Animal ia
subregnum =Eumetazoa
unranked_phylum =Bilateria
superphylum = Platyzoa
superphylum_authority = Cavalier-Smith, 1998
subdivision_ranks = Phyla
subdivision =*
Platyhelminthes
*Gastrotricha
* "Gnathifera (unranked)"
**Rotifera
**Acanthocephala
**Gnathostomulida
**Micrognathozoa
** CycliophoraThe Platyzoa (pronEng|ˌplætɨˈzoʊə) are a group ofprotostome animals proposed byThomas Cavalier-Smith in 1998. Cavalier-Smith included in Platyzoa thePhylum Platyhelminthes orflatworm s, and a new phylum, Acanthognatha, into which he gathered several previously described phyla of microscopic animals. Subsequent studies have supported Platyzoa as aclade , a monophyletic group of organisms with a common ancestor, while differing on the phyla included and on relationships within Platyzoa.One current scheme places the following traditional phyla in Platyzoa:
*Platyhelminthes
*Gastrotrich a
*Gnathifera
**Rotifer a
**Acanthocephala
**Gnathostomulid a
** Micrognathozoa
** CycliophoraThe Platyhelminthes and Gastrotricha are acoelomate. The other phyla have a pseudocoel, and share characteristics such as the structure of their jaws and
pharynx , although these have been secondarily lost in the parasitic Acanthocephala. They form a monophyletic subgroup called the Gnathifera.The Platyzoa are close relatives of the
Lophotrochozoa , and are sometimes included in that group. Together the two make up the Spiralia.References
* [http://sn2000.taxonomy.nl/Taxonomicon/TaxonTree.aspx?id=126691 The Taxonomicon - Taxon: Infrakingdom Platyzoa Cavalier-Smith, 1998] - retrieved
January 31 2006
* [http://www.paru.cas.cz/folia/pdf/2-01/Zrz.pdf The interrelationships of metazoan parasites: a review of phylum- and higher-level hypotheses from recent morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses] - retrievedJanuary 31 2006
* [http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/(karlsa55kkmi3nmox1xujfbv)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,9,14;journal,32,42;linkingpublicationresults,1:102493,1 Triploblastic Relationships with Emphasis on the Acoelomates and the Position of Gnathostomulida, Cycliophora, Plathelminthes, and Chaetognatha: A Combined Approach of 18S rDNA Sequences and Morphology] - retrievedJanuary 31 2006
* [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1096-0031.2001.tb00116.x Myzostomida Are Not Annelids: Molecular and Morphological Support for a Clade of Animals with Anterior Sperm Flagella] - retrievedJanuary 31 2006
* [http://www.botany.utoronto.ca/ResearchLabs/guttmanLab/Bot1700/Giribet_2002_MPE(24)345.pdf Current advances in the phylogenetic reconstruction of metazoan evolution. A new paradigm for the Cambrian explosion?] - retrievedJanuary 31 2006
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.