rhamphotheca:Mistaken Identity: ‘Sea Anemone’ Is Actually New Type of Animalby Elizabeth HowellLurki
rhamphotheca:Mistaken Identity: ‘Sea Anemone’ Is Actually New Type of Animalby Elizabeth HowellLurking in the deep sea is a marine creature thought to be one of the world’s largest sea anemones. But the animal, which has tentacles measuring more than 6 feet (2 meters) long, isn’t an anemone but rather the first known organism in a new order of animals, according to new research.In the four-year study, researchers created a “tree of life” for sea anemones, which are sometimes called “flowers of the sea” but are actually stationary meat-eating animals. In doing so, they examined the DNA of Boloceroides daphneae — discovered in 2006 in the deep Pacific Ocean — and found the creature stood out as not fitting on the sea anemone tree of life at all.Researchers have now renamed the species Relicanthus daphneae, placing it into a new order (the equivalent of Carnivoria for mammals, Crocodilia for reptiles or Actiniaria for sea anemones) within the subclass Hexacorallia, which also includes anemones, black corals and stony corals…(read more: Live Science)photograph: Credit: ©NERC CHESSO project -- source link
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