The Spiralia are a morphologically diverse

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

protostome 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 ...

animals, including within their number the

molluscs Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

annelids The annelids (), also known as the segmented worms, are animals that comprise the phylum Annelida (; ). The phylum contains over 22,000 extant species, including ragworms, earthworms, and leeches. The species exist in and have adapted to vario ...

platyhelminths Platyhelminthes (from the Greek πλατύ, ''platy'', meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), ''helminth-'', meaning "worm") is a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegmented, soft-bodied invertebrates commonly called f ...

and other

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...

. The term ''Spiralia'' is applied to those phyla that exhibit canonical

spiral cleavage In embryology, cleavage is the division of cells in the early development of the embryo, following fertilization. The zygotes of many species undergo rapid cell cycles with no significant overall growth, producing a cluster of cells the same siz ...

, a pattern of early development found in most members of the

Lophotrochozoa Lophotrochozoa (, "crest/wheel animals") is a clade of protostome animals within the Spiralia. The taxon was established as a monophyletic group based on molecular evidence. The clade includes animals like annelids, molluscs, bryozoans, and brach ...

Distribution of spiralian development across phylogeny

Members of the

and

nemertean Nemertea is a phylum of animals also known as ribbon worms or proboscis worms, consisting of about 1300 known species. Most ribbon worms are very slim, usually only a few millimeters wide, although a few have relatively short but wide bodies. ...

s have all been shown to exhibit spiral cleavage in its classical form. Other spiralian phyla (

rotifers The rotifers (, from Latin 'wheel' and 'bearing'), sometimes called wheel animals or wheel animalcules, make up a phylum (Rotifera ) of microscopic and near-microscopic pseudocoelomate animals. They were first described by Rev. John Harris ...

brachiopods Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, while the fron ...

phoronids Phoronids ( taxonomic name Phoronida, sometimes called horseshoe worms) are a small phylum of marine animals that filter-feed with a lophophore (a "crown" of tentacles), and build upright tubes of chitin to support and protect their soft bodies ...

gastrotrichs The gastrotrichs (phylum Gastrotricha), common name, commonly referred to as hairybellies or hairybacks, are a group of Microscopic scale, microscopic (0.06–3.0 mm), cylindrical, acoelomate animals, and are widely distributed and abundant ...

, and

bryozoans Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic animal, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary Colony (biology), colonies. Typically about long, they have a spe ...

) are also said to display a derived form of

in at least a portion of their constituent species, although evidence for this is sparse.

Lophotrochozoa within Spiralia

Previously,

was thought to be unique to the Spiralia in the strictest sense—animals such as molluscs and annelids which exhibit classical spiral cleavage. The presence of spiral cleavage in animals such as platyhelminths could be difficult to correlate with some phylogenies. Evidence of a close relationship between

and lophophorates was found in 1995 and Lophotrochozoa was defined as the group containing these taxa and all the descendants of their last common ancestor. More recent research has established the

as a superphylum within the Metazoa. With this understanding, the presence of spiral cleavage in polyclad platyhelminths, as well as the more traditional Spiralia, has led to the hypothesis that spiral cleavage was present ancestrally across the Lophotrochozoa as a whole. With the introduction of

Platytrochozoa The Platytrochozoa are a proposed basal clade of spiralian animals as the sister group of the Gnathifera. The Platytrochozoa were divided into the Rouphozoa and the Lophotrochozoa. A more recent study suggests that the mesozoans also belong ...

and Rouphozoa, the cladogram is as follows, with an indication approximately how many million years ago (Mya) the clades radiated into newer clades. An alternative phylogeny was given in 2019, with a basal grouping Mollusca with Entoprocta grouping named

Tetraneuralia Tetraneuralia is a proposed clade of spiralian bilaterians uniting the phyla Mollusca and Entoprocta. belonging to Lophotrochozoa that groups mollusks, entoprocts and the extinct family Cupithecidae. The clade is supported by several morphologic ...

, and a second grouping of Nemertea with Platyhelminthes named Parenchymia as sister of Annelida. In their proposal and according to the original definition, Lophotrochozoa may become a senior synonym for Platytrochozoa. In 2019 the Rouphozoa was recovered again as a basal

clade. A 2022 study supported the

Trochozoa The Trochozoa are a proposed Lophotrochozoa clade that is a sister clade of Bryozoa and Platyzoa. The clade would include animals in five phyla: the Nemertea, the Annelida, the Mollusca, and the two Brachiozoan phyla, Brachiopoda and Phoronida ...

and

Platyzoa The "Platyzoa" are a group of protostome unsegmented animals proposed by Thomas Cavalier-Smith in 1998. Cavalier-Smith included in Platyzoa the phylum Platyhelminthes (or flatworms), and a new phylum, the Acanthognatha, into which he gathered s ...

hypotheses, as shown below. The same year another study placed bryozoans, entoproctans and cycliophorans in the group Polyzoa as one of the earliest branches among Lophotrochozoa.Polyzoa is back: The effect of complete gene sets on the placement of Ectoprocta and Entoprocta - Science
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References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1211307 Protostome unranked clades