“阿克尔扁形虫”(Acoel flatworms)是最简单的动物之一，它们是如此地简单，以至于既没有一个贯通的肠道，又没有一个体腔。但新的分子研究将它们从其在动物进化的底部位置挪开了，将其与棘皮类动物（海星、海胆等等）放在了一起，并大大拉近了它们与脊索动物（包括人类在内的一个类群）的距离。在这之前，人们曾发现，“异涡虫”(Xenoturbella)（一种有神秘演化关系的简单扁形虫）也属于这一类群。这项研究说明，“阿克尔”并不是像人们以前所以为的那样从一开始就很简单，而是随着时间推移而变简单的，失去了如体腔、肛门和鳃裂等特征。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Nature doi:10.1038/nature09676
Acoelomorph flatworms are deuterostomes related to Xenoturbella
Hervé Philippe,1 Henner Brinkmann,1 Richard R. Copley,2 Leonid L. Moroz,3 Hiroaki Nakano,4, 9 Albert J. Poustka,5 Andreas Wallberg,6 Kevin J. Peterson7 & Maximilian J. Telford8
Xenoturbellida and Acoelomorpha are marine worms with contentious ancestry. Both were originally associated with the flatworms (Platyhelminthes), but molecular data have revised their phylogenetic positions, generally linking Xenoturbellida to the deuterostomes1, 2 and positioning the Acoelomorpha as the most basally branching bilaterian group(s)3, 4, 5, 6. Recent phylogenomic data suggested that Xenoturbellida and Acoelomorpha are sister taxa and together constitute an early branch of Bilateria7. Here we assemble three independent data sets—mitochondrial genes, a phylogenomic data set of 38,330 amino-acid positions and new microRNA (miRNA) complements—and show that the position of Acoelomorpha is strongly affected by a long-branch attraction (LBA) artefact. When we minimize LBA we find consistent support for a position of both acoelomorphs and Xenoturbella within the deuterostomes. The most likely phylogeny links Xenoturbella and Acoelomorpha in a clade we call Xenacoelomorpha. The Xenacoelomorpha is the sister group of the Ambulacraria (hemichordates and echinoderms). We show that analyses of miRNA complements8 have been affected by character loss in the acoels and that both groups possess one miRNA and the gene Rsb66 otherwise specific to deuterostomes. In addition, Xenoturbella shares one miRNA with the ambulacrarians, and two with the acoels. This phylogeny makes sense of the shared characteristics of Xenoturbellida and Acoelomorpha, such as ciliary ultrastructure and diffuse nervous system, and implies the loss of various deuterostome characters in the Xenacoelomorpha including coelomic cavities, through gut and gill slits.
