Myxozoa in Haeckel’s Shadow

Haeckel’s embryos: fraud not proven

Through the last half of the nineteenth century and the first part of the twentieth, no scientist more vigorously defended Darwinian theory than the German Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919). More people learned of the new ideas through his voluminous publications, translated into numerous languages, than through any other source, including Darwin’s own writings. He enraged many of his contemporaries, e...

Agent of Whirling Disease Meets Orphan Worm: Phylogenomic Analyses Firmly Place Myxozoa in Cnidaria

Myxozoa are microscopic obligate endoparasites with complex live cycles. Representatives are Myxobolus cerebralis, the causative agent of whirling disease in salmonids, and the enigmatic "orphan worm" Buddenbrockia plumatellae parasitizing in Bryozoa. Originally, Myxozoa were classified as protists, but later several metazoan characteristics were reported. However, their phylogenetic relationsh...

Description of Three New Myxosporean Species (Myxozoa: Myxosporea: Bivalvulida) of the Genera Myxobilatus Davis, 1944 and Myxobolus Bütschli, 1882

The present communication describes three new species of myxosporeans (Myxozoa: Myxosporea: Bivalvulida), Myxobilatus odontamblyopusi sp. n., Myxobolus catmrigalae sp. n. and M. buccoroofus sp. n. from Odontamblyopus rubicundus (HamiltonBuchanan), Catla-Mrigal hybrid carp [male parent fish Catla catla (Hamilton-Buchanan) × female parent fish Cirrhinus mrigala (Hamilton-Buchanan)] and Labeo bata...

The Mitochondrial Genomes of a Myxozoan Genus Kudoa Are Extremely Divergent in Metazoa

The Myxozoa are oligo-cellular parasites with alternate hosts--fish and annelid worms--and some myxozoan species harm farmed fish. The phylum Myxozoa, comprising 2,100 species, was difficult to position in the tree of life, due to its fast evolutionary rate. Recent phylogenomic studies utilizing an extensive number of nuclear-encoded genes have confirmed that Myxozoans belong to Cnidaria. Never...

Transcriptomic evidence that enigmatic parasites Polypodium hydriforme and Myxozoa are cnidarians