Lophophorata

Common card · No. 498700

The Lophophorata (also called Tentaculata; not to be confused with Tentaculata Eschscholtz 1825, a class within the Ctenophora) are a lophotrochozoan clade consisting of the Brachiozoa and the Bryozoa. They have a lophophore. On morphological grounds lophophorates have been assessed as deuterostomes, but molecular phylogenetic analyses suggest that they are protostomes. Fossil finds of the "tommotiid" Wufengella suggest that they evolved from worm-like animals that resembled annelids. The phylogenetic relationships between these groups are as follows:

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