Cycliophorans have a complex life cycle that involves several sexual and asexual stages. One of the sexual stages is the 40 μm-long dwarf male, which is among the smallest free-living metazoans.

Knowledge on the morphology of the cycliophoran female has mostly been based on observations of immature females in brood chambers of feeding stages. With the use of light- and transmission electron ...

There’s no question that discovering a new species is very cool. But how about discovering a new phylum? Symbion pandora, as they called the new creature, is a tiny animal with a complex body and a ...

In the most computationally intensive phylogenetic analysis to date, an international research team has found the first evolutionary branching for bilateral animals. The researchers determined that ...

When it comes to understanding a critical junction in animal evolution, some short, simple flatworms have been a real thorn in scientists' sides. Specialists have jousted over the proper taxonomic ...

Loriciferans, cycliophorans and micrognathozoans are amongst the latest groups of animals to be discovered. Other than all being microscopic, they have very different body plans and are not closely ...