Systema Naturae includes representatives of every major lineage of the animal phylum
Cnidaria. However, Linnaeus did not classify the members of the phylum as is now done …

Life cycles that incorporate discrete, morphologically distinct phases predominate among
animals. One explanation for the abundance and long-term persistence of complex life …

Scleractinian corals have a continuous fossil record from the mid-Triassic, but taxonomic
difficulties have impeded an understanding of their evolution. A molecular phylogenetic …

Abstract Background The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of most animals evolves more rapidly
than nuclear DNA, and often shows higher levels of intraspecific polymorphism and …

The evolutionary history of cnidarian life cycles has been debated since the 1880s, with
different hypotheses favored even by current textbooks. Contributing to the disagreement is …

Evolutionary developmental biology (“evo-devo”) has revolutionized evolutionary biology
but has had relatively little impact on systematics. We show that similar large-scale …

Background The cosmopolitan moon jelly Aurelia is characterized by high degrees of
morphological and ecological plasticity, and subsequently by an unclear taxonomic status …

Ecomorphological analyses generally seek to link the structure and function of organisms
with relevant features of the environment. The scope of ecomorphological studies is far …

The evolutionary history of scleractinian corals is based on knowledge of skeletal characters
and their 250 million yr fossil record. However, homologies of skeletal characters are not …

A long-term time series of plankton records collected by the continuous plankton recorder
(CPR) Survey in the northeast Atlantic indicates an increased occurrence of Cnidaria since …