Figure 2. Phylogenetic position of the animal Phyla examined in this study.

This scheme follows a modern synthesis based largely on molecular data, reported by Halanych [59] and further resolved by Philippe et al [66]and Srivastava et al [67]. This figure is restricted to the position of phyla considered in the present study only. This figures establishes the colour scheme used for animal phyla throughout figures 3–8 (Light blue, mid blue, dark blue and orange represents Early-Metazoan, Early-Eumetazoan, Deuterostome and non-Deuterostome ineages respectively.).