title: Myxozoa + Polypodium: A Common Route to Endoparasitism.
abstract: Recent evidence places the problematic Polypodium, a parasite of fish eggs, firmly as sister taxon to Myxozoa within the Cnidaria. This resolution suggests a single route to endoparasitism in Cnidaria, with larval stages of a common ancestor exploiting fish as first hosts. It also enables new interpretations and insights regarding evolutionary transitions associated with endoparasitism.
authors.affiliation: Natural History Museum, Department of Life Sciences, London, UK. Electronic address: b.okamura@nhm.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Okamura
authors.affiliation: Natural History Museum, Department of Life Sciences, London, UK; Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gruhl
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016678:Genome; D055766:Myxobolus / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny
keywords: Cnidaria; evolution of parasitism; fish parasites; phylogeny