ArticleNature2016
Xenacoelomorpha is the sister group to Nephrozoa.
Article in Nature, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 157 papers.
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Who cites it
157 citing papers in PubMed, 386 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Patterns of Conservation and Loss of Hox Genes in Xenacoelomorph Lineage Since Divergence From Last Common Bilaterian Ancestor.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
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- Injury-induced Neuregulin-EGFR signaling from muscle mobilizes stem cells for whole-body regeneration in acoels.Developmental biology · 2025Article
- Molecular evidence from xenacoelomorph gonopore formation supports homology with the bilaterian anus.Nature ecology & evolution · 2025Article
- Distributed neural computation and the evolution of the first brains.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Developmental, regenerative, and behavioral dynamics in acoel reproduction.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
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- Chromatin profiling data indicate regulatory mechanisms for differentiation during development in the acoel Hofstenia miamia.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
- Ultrafiltration and Fluid Excretion in Echinoids Involves the Axial Organ with Elimination via the Intestine.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Genomics Sheds New Light on the Ancestral Bilaterian Opsin Repertoire and Suggests Rhabdomeric Phototransduction in Xenacoelomorpha.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Fundamental questions in meiofauna research highlight how small but ubiquitous animals can improve our understanding of Nature.Communications biology · 2025Article
- A Phylogenomic Backbone for Acoelomorpha Inferred From Transcriptomic Data.Systematic biology · 2025Article
- MixtureFinder: Estimating DNA Mixture Models for Phylogenetic Analyses.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
97 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The position of Xenacoelomorpha in the tree of life remains a major unresolved question in the study of deep animal relationships. Xenacoelomorpha, comprising Acoela, Nemertodermatida, and Xenoturbella, are bilaterally symmetrical marine worms that lack several features common to most other bilaterians, for example an anus, nephridia, and a circulatory system. Two conflicting hypotheses are under debate: Xenacoelomorpha is the sister group to all remaining Bilateria (= Nephrozoa, namely protostomes and deuterostomes) or is a clade inside Deuterostomia. Thus, determining the phylogenetic position of this clade is pivotal for understanding the early evolution of bilaterian features, or as a case of drastic secondary loss of complexity. Here we show robust phylogenomic support for Xenacoelomorpha as the sister taxon of Nephrozoa. Our phylogenetic analyses, based on 11 novel xenacoelomorph transcriptomes and using different models of evolution under maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses, strongly corroborate this result. Rigorous testing of 25 experimental data sets designed to exclude data partitions and taxa potentially prone to reconstruction biases indicates that long-branch attraction, saturation, and missing data do not influence these results. The sister group relationship between Nephrozoa and Xenacoelomorpha supported by our phylogenomic analyses implies that the last common ancestor of bilaterians was probably a benthic, ciliated acoelomate worm with a single opening into an epithelial gut, and that excretory organs, coelomic cavities, and nerve cords evolved after xenacoelomorphs separated from the stem lineage of Nephrozoa.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.