What are the Acoelomorpha?
Q: What are the Acoelomorpha?
A: The Acoelomorpha are a group of animals with features that were once placed in the phylum Platyhelminthes (flatworms).
Q: What did molecular studies reveal about the Acoelomorpha?
A: Molecular studies showed that their closest relatives are the Xenoturbellida, and the two groups make up the proposed new phylum, the Xenacoelomorpha.
Q: How do most researchers believe the Acoelomorpha relate to other animals?
A: Most researchers believe them to be basal among the bilateria, slightly more derived than the Cnidaria.
Q: Where do the Acoelomorpha potentially lie in the evolutionary tree?
A: Recent results suggest that they (along with Xenoturbella) may lie near the base of the deuterostomes.
Q: What is the ongoing collaborative research project trying to achieve?
A: The ongoing collaborative research project has "the researchers ... confident that they can reach an agreement about where acoels fit in evolutionary history".
Q: What is the newly classified phylum that the Acoelomorpha belong to?
A: The newly classified phylum that the Acoelomorpha belong to is the Xenacoelomorpha.
Q: What are some characteristics of the Acoelomorpha?
A: Acoels are almost entirely marine, living between grains of sediment, swimming as plankton, or crawling on algae. Acoels have a statocyst, which presumably helps them orient to gravity. Their soft bodies make them difficult to classify.
