MOLECULAR ANALYSIS SUPPORTS A TARDIGRADE-ARTHROPOD ASSOCIATION

摘要

The phylogenetic placement of the phylum Tardigrada among the Metazoa is somewhat uncertain. In analyses based on morphological characters, tardigrades are usually associated with arthropods but tardigrades have also been associated with a number of aschelminth phyla. We have sequenced the nearly complete 18S rRNA gene from a eutardigrade. Neighbor-Joining and Maximum-Parsimony analyses place tardigrades in a clade that includes arthropods and priapulids, but not other aschelminths. [References: 73]