new "coded" classifications

[Tom DiBenedetto]

Ken Kinman wrote:

>                    KINGDOM METAZOA
>  1  Porifera (sponges, archaeocyaths, and allies.....)
>       1  Hyalospongea (glass sponges....)
>       2  Calcispongea (chalky sponges....)
>       3  Demospongea (demosponges and sclerosponges...)
>       4  Archaeocyathea (the Cambrian archaeocyaths)
>  2  Placozoa (trichoplacoids; only 1 or 2 living sp.)
>  3  Cnidaria (cnidarians; 9,200 living species)
>  B  Petalonamata (Precambrian-Cambrian; no extant sp.)
>  4  Ctenophora (comb jellies; 80+ living species)
>  ?  Conulata (U. Precamb.-Triassic; no living species)

Could you please explain how one should read this classification? For example, what are the interrelationships of the
Poriferan subtaxa? Is it (1(2(3,4) or (1,2)(3,4) or (1(2,3)4), or a hard four-way polytomy or what? And what are the
relationships of the phyla?