Immediately below the level of Kingdom in the hierarchical classification of all of life on Earth is the level of Phylum. The whole of the Animal kingdom has 35 Phyla and all plant life 12. So the whole of Earths biodiversity is captured by less than 50 Phyla.
Until now.
A recently published paper in PLoS One (HERE) describes two species within a new Phylum of organisms that were dredged up near Australia in 1986.
A new genus, Dendrogramma, with two new species of multicellular, non-bilaterian, mesogleal animals with some bilateral aspects, D. enigmatica and D. discoides,
are described from the south-east Australian bathyal (400 and 1000
metres depth). A new family, Dendrogrammatidae, is established for Dendrogramma.
These mushroom-shaped organisms cannot be referred to either of the two
phyla Ctenophora or Cnidaria at present, because they lack any
specialised characters of these taxa. Resolving the phylogenetic
position of Dendrogramma depends much on how the basal metazoan
lineages (Ctenophora, Porifera, Placozoa, Cnidaria, and Bilateria) are
related to each other, a question still under debate. At least Dendrogramma must have branched off before Bilateria and is possibly related to Ctenophora and/or Cnidaria. Dendrogramma, therefore, is referred to Metazoa incertae sedis.
The specimens were fixed in neutral formaldehyde and stored in 80%
ethanol and are not suitable for molecular analysis. We recommend,
therefore, that attempts be made to secure new material for further
study. Finally similarities between Dendrogramma and a group of Ediacaran (Vendian) medusoids are discussed.
Citation:
Just J, Kristensen RM, Olesen J (2014) Dendrogramma, New Genus, with Two New Non-Bilaterian Species from the Marine Bathyal of Southeastern Australia (Animalia, Metazoa incertae sedis) – with Similarities to Some Medusoids from the Precambrian Ediacara. PLoS ONE 9(9):
e102976.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0102976
Below - one of the sketches from the paper coloured in for fun.
