Choanoflagellate

The choanoflagellates are a class or phylum of collared microscopic flagellate eukaryotes. Some species are single cells, some are multicellular. They do not have chloroplasts, and are heterotrophic. Some consider they form the simplest phylum of animals; others consider them to be protists.^[6][7]

Choanoflagellates Temporal range: 900–0 Ma Had'n Archean Proterozoic Pha. No fossils known, molecular clock evidence for origin 1050-800Ma[1]
Codosiga sp.
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Clade:	Obazoa
Clade:	Opisthokonta
Clade:	Holozoa
Clade:	Filozoa
Clade:	Choanozoa
Class:	Choanoflagellatea Cavalier-Smith, 1998[2][3]
Orders & families
Craspedida Codonosigidae (incl. Salpingoecidae) Acanthoecida Stephanoecidae Acanthoecidae
Synonyms
Craspedmonadina Stein, 1878 Choanoflagellata Kent, 1880[4] Craspedomonadaceae Senn, 1900 Craspedophyceae Chadefaud, 1960 Craspédomonadophycidées Bourrelly, 1968 Craspedomonadophyceae Hibberd, 1976 Choanomonadea Krylov et al., 1980 Choanoflagellida Levine et al., 1980, Lee et al., 1985 Choanoflagellea Cavalier-Smith, 1997 Choanomonada Adl et al. 2005[5]

Sphaeroeca, a colony of choanoflagellates (about 230 individuals)

The Choanoflagellates have many similarities to metazoa, and are the sister group to Metazoa

Holozoa	Ichthyosporea Pluriformea Filozoa Filasteria Choanozoa Choanoflagellata Metazoa

Related pages

• List of animal phyla
• Craspedida