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Science 25 October 1996:
Vol. 274. no. 5287, pp. 568 - 573
DOI: 10.1126/science.274.5287.568
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Research Articles

Molecular Evidence for Deep Precambrian Divergences Among Metazoan Phyla

Gregory A. Wray, * Jeffrey S. Levinton, Leo H. Shapiro dagger

A literal reading of the fossil record suggests that the animal phyla diverged in an "explosion" near the beginning of the Cambrian period. Calibrated rates of molecular sequence divergence were used to test this hypothesis. Seven independent data sets suggest that invertebrates diverged from chordates about a billion years ago, about twice as long ago as the Cambrian. Protostomes apparently diverged from chordates well before echinoderms, which suggests a prolonged radiation of animal phyla. These conclusions apply specifically to divergence times among phyla; the morphological features that characterize modern animal body plans, such as skeletons and coeloms, may have evolved later.

The authors are in the Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5245, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: for G. A. Wray, gwray{at}life.bio.sunysb.edu; for J. S. Levinton, levinton{at}life.bio.sunysb.edu.

dagger    Present address: Molecular Genetics Program, Department of Zoological Research, National Zoological Park, Washington, DC 20008, USA.

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