Scaphopoda is the sister taxon to Bivalvia: Evidence of ancient incomplete lineage sorting.

ABSTRACT: The almost simultaneous emergence of major animal phyla during the early Cambrian shaped modern animal biodiversity. Reconstructing evolutionary relationships among such closely spaced branches in the animal tree of life has proven to be a major challenge, hindering understanding of early animal evolution and the fossil record. This is particularly true in the species-rich and highly varied Mollusca where dramatic inconsistency among paleontological, morphological, and molecular evidence has led to a long-standing debate about the group's phylogeny and the nature of dozens of enigmatic fossil taxa. A critical step needed to overcome this issue is to supplement available genomic data, which is plentiful for well-studied lineages, with genomes from rare but key lineages, such as Scaphopoda.

SUBMITTER: Song H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10556646 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature