Centroneuralia is a proposed clade of

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Biology, biological Kingdom (biology), kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, ...

s with

bilateral symmetry Symmetry in biology refers to the symmetry observed in organisms, including plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. External symmetry can be easily seen by just looking at an organism. For example, the face of a human being has a plane of symme ...

as an embryo, consisting of the

Chordata A chordate ( ) is a bilaterian animal belonging to the phylum Chordata ( ). All chordates possess, at some point during their larval or adult stages, five distinctive physical characteristics (Apomorphy and synapomorphy, synapomorphies) th ...

and

Protostomia Protostomia () is the clade of animals once thought to be characterized by the formation of the organism's mouth before its anus during embryonic development. This nature has since been discovered to be extremely variable among Protostomia's memb ...

, united by the presence of a

central nervous system The central nervous system (CNS) is the part of the nervous system consisting primarily of the brain, spinal cord and retina. The CNS is so named because the brain integrates the received information and coordinates and influences the activity o ...

. An alternative to the traditional protostome-

deuterostome Deuterostomes (from Greek: ) are bilaterian animals of the superphylum Deuterostomia (), typically characterized by their anus forming before the mouth during embryonic development. Deuterostomia comprises three phyla: Chordata, Echinodermata, ...

dichotomy, it has found weak support in several studies. Under this hypothesis, Centroneuralia would be sister to

Xenambulacraria Xenambulacraria is a proposed clade of animals with bilateral symmetry as an embryo, consisting of the Xenacoelomorpha (i.e., ''Xenoturbella'' and acoelomorphs) and the Ambulacraria (i.e., echinoderms and hemichordates). If confirmed, the clade ...

(

Xenacoelomorpha Xenacoelomorpha () is a small phylum of bilaterian invertebrate animals, consisting of two sister groups: xenoturbellids and acoelomorphs. This new phylum was named in February 2011 and suggested based on morphological synapomorphies (physica ...

Ambulacraria Ambulacraria , or Coelomopora , is a clade of invertebrate phyla that includes echinoderms and hemichordates; a member of this group is called an ambulacrarian. Phylogenetic analysis suggests the echinoderms and hemichordates separated around ...

) at the base of

Bilateria Bilateria () is a large clade of animals characterised by bilateral symmetry during embryonic development. This means their body plans are laid around a longitudinal axis with a front (or "head") and a rear (or "tail") end, as well as a left� ...

. Centroneuralia, as a proposed clade, originates in phylogenomics. More precisely, recent studies correlate support for Deuterostomia with simpler, site-homogeneous models, while more sophisticated and site-heterogeneous models recover Centroneuralia more often.

Phylogeny

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q116480467 Controversial taxa Bilaterian taxa