Genetic analysis of an obscure, worm-like creature retrieved from the depths of the North Atlantic has led to the discovery of a new phylum, a rare event in an era when most organisms have already ...

Who came first – sponges or comb jellies? A new study reaffirms that sponges are the oldest animal phylum – and restores the classical view of early animal evolution, which recent molecular analyses ...

Genome sequencing has revealed that horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a major evolutionary process in bacteria. Although it is generally assumed that closely related organisms engage in genetic ...

All phylogenies were constructed with the MEGA 4.0 software package (Tamura et al., 2007). A total of 20 concatenated protein phylogenetic trees were constructed around 32 full-length ribosomal ...

A newly discovered phylum of Archaea, Brockarchaeota, can break down plant and organic matter without releasing methane. An international collaboration between scientists based in the USA and China, ...