Holozoa

Holozoa is a group of creatures that includes animals, and some single-celled relatives of animals, which excludes fungi.^[1] Holozoa is also an old name for the tunicate genus Distaplia.^[2] Holozoa is a clade: a group of plants or animals with a common ancestor. It has all of the organisms close to animals.^[3]

Holozoa Temporal range: Early Tonian - Present, 1000–0 Ma Had'n Archean Proterozoic Pha.
Orange elephant ear sponge, Agelas clathrodes, in foreground. Two corals in the background: a sea fan, Iciligorgia schrammi, and a sea rod, Plexaurella nutans.
Scientific classification
Clade:	Amorphea
Clade:	Obazoa
Clade:	Opisthokonta
Clade:	Holozoa Lang et al., 2002
Subgroups
Ichthyosporea (= Mesomycetozoea) Pluriformea Corallochytrium Syssomonas Filozoa Filasterea Choanozoa Choanoflagellata Metazoa (animals)

Examples

An example of a well-known holozoan is the choanoflagellate, which looks like the cells of a sponge. Proterospongia is an example of a choanoflagellate giving clues as to how sponges evolved.

Evolution

The phylogenic tree^[a] shows how clades evolved into newer clades, which include Holozoa.

Opisthokonta	Holomycota Cristidiscoidea Fonticulida Nucleariida Fungi/Zoosporia BCG2 True Fungi Aphelida BCG1 Rozellomyceta/ Rozella Namako-37 Microsporidia Holozoa Ichthyosporea Pluriformea Syssomonas Corallochytrium Filozoa Filasterea Choanozoa Choanoflagellatea Animalia

Footnotes

1. Commonly known as the evolution tree.