Sponges' Contested Position at the Animal Root
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State
Whether sponges or comb jellies branched first from the animal tree is contested, with morphological and molecular evidence pointing to different candidates.
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Morphological simplicity favors sponges as the earliest-branching lineage, while some molecular analyses place comb jellies in that spot.
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This course states both positions with no verdict — which lineage branched first remains an open question in phylogenetics.