title: Animal evolution: a soap opera of unremarkable worms.
abstract: Recent phylogenies have suggested that acoelomorph flatworms might provide insights into the nature of the ancestor of bilaterian animals. However, according to new data acoelomorphs might instead be degenerate deuterostomes closely related to Xenoturbella, muddying the waters of early animal evolution.
authors.affiliation: Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, 120 Oceanview Blvd, Pacific Grove, CA 94950, USA. clowe@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lowe
authors.forename: Ariel M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Pani
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000235:genetics*