Continenticola is a
clade that includes the
land planarians (Geoplanidae) and the freshwater triclads (
Dendrocoelidae
Dendrocoelidae is a family of freshwater tricladida flatworms that has a holarctic distribution.
The largest freshwater triclad known belongs to this family, it's up to 40 cm in length and inhabits the Lake Baikal.
Description
The fam ...
,
Dugesiidae
Dugesiidae is a family of freshwater planarians distributed worldwide (except Antarctica). The type genus is ''Dugesia
''Dugesia'' (pronounced, /duˈd͡ʒiʒ(i)ə/) is a genus of dugesiid triclads that contains some common representatives ...
,
Kenkiidae and
Planariidae
Planariidae is a family of freshwater planarians.
The type genus is ''Planaria'' Müller, 1776.Ball IR: A contribution to the phylogeny and biogeography of the freshwater triclads (Platyhelminthes: Turbellaria). Biology of the Turbellaria (Edi ...
).
Phylogeny
On the basis of molecular evidences, Carranza and colleagues suggested in 1998 that the families of freshwater and land flatworms must be grouped together in a
monophyletic
In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...
group that they coined Continenticola. This grouping was accepted by Ronald Sluys in 2009. Despite the molecular evidences, there are no morphological
apomorphies supporting this clade.
Phylogenetic supertree after Sluys et al., 2009:
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5165347