Article: New phylum found! (Loricifera)

The bizarre creatures shown above are the adult (left) and larval (right) forms of a tiny animal named Nanaloricus mysticus. They have caused great excitement among zoologists because they represent a completely new phylum--only the third discovered in this century in the animal kingdom. (The other two phyla were found in 1900 and in 1956.) A phylum is the next-to-highest group (after subkingdom) in teh classification system used to group living things. A total of only 35 phyla, including this new one, is needed to encompass millions of species of living animals.

The new phylum has been named Loricifera by its discoverer, Dr. Reinhart Kristensen, a postdoctoral ...

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