acanthocephalans highly adapted parasitic mode of life, , have lost many organs , structures through evolutionary processes. makes determining relationships other higher taxa through morphological comparison problematic. phylogenetic analysis of 18s ribosomal gene has revealed acanthocephala closely related rotifers. possibly closer 2 rotifer classes bdelloidea , monogononta other class, seisonidea, producing names , relationships shown in cladogram below.
the 3 rotifer classes , acanthocephala make clade called syndermata. clade placed in platyzoa.
currently phylum divided 4 classes – palaeacanthocephala, archiacanthocephala, polyacanthocephala , eoacanthocephala. monophyletic archiacanthocephala sister taxon of clade comprising eoacanthocephala , monophyletic palaeacanthocephala.
a study of gene order in mitochondria suggests seisonidea , acanthocephala sister clades , bdelloidea sister clade group.
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