Endocnidozoa, new cnidarian class?

[Barry M. OConnor]

At 9:31 AM 10/3/96, Peter Schuchert wrote:
>dear collegues
>It thus seems that the the clade (Polypodium + Myxozoa) is not closely
>related to the Hydrozoa and it probably constitutes a new class within the
>Cnidaria. The autapomorphy for this clade would be endocytic parasitisms
>(+support from 18S RNA sequence analysis). A new name for this clade could
>be: Endocnidozoa.
>
If there is no evidence supporting (Polypodium + Myxozoa) within a
hypothetically monophyletic Hydrozoa, then these taxa should not be placed
there in a phylogenetic classification.  However, the tendency to
proliferate higher category names should be avoided.  There's nothing wrong
with "classifying" these taxa as Cnidaria incertae sedis until further
analysis provides evidence for which of the monophyletic cnidarian lineages
contains (or is) the sister group.

Barry M. OConnor                phone: (313) 763-4354
Museum of Zoology               FAX: (313) 763-4080
University of Michigan          e-mail: bmoc at umich.edu
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079  USA