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Protocol for Human Blastoids Modeling Blastocyst Development and Implantation

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Published on: August 10, 2022

Is the deuterostome clade an artifact?

Ana Serra Silva¹, Paschalis Natsidis¹, Laura Piovani¹

¹Centre for Life's Origins and Evolution, Department of Genetics, Evolution, and Environment, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK.

Current Biology : CB

|July 12, 2025

Summary

Challenging the established Deuterostomia clade, this study reveals that its monophyly is supported only under conditions prone to systematic error. Mitigating these errors significantly weakens or eliminates support for Deuterostomia, questioning its evolutionary history.

Keywords:

Deuterostomia Metazoa long-branch attraction artifact phylogeny systematic error

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary Biology
Phylogenetics
Animal Kingdom

Background:

The clade Deuterostomia, comprising Chordata, Echinodermata, and Hemichordata, is a long-standing consensus in animal phylogeny.
Recent phylogenetic analyses have cast doubt on the monophyly of Deuterostomia due to short branch lengths potentially indicating systematic error.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate potential sources of systematic error influencing phylogenetic analyses of Deuterostomia.
To re-evaluate the monophyly of Deuterostomia by employing a site-by-site approach and mitigating known sources of error.

Main Methods:

Utilized a site-by-site phylogenetic analysis approach.
Simulated conditions promoting long-branch attraction (LBA), such as branch-length heterogeneity and amino acid compositional constraints.
Implemented methods to mitigate potential systematic errors in phylogenetic inference.

Main Results:

Deuterostome monophyly was strongly supported under conditions that promote long-branch attraction (LBA).
Mitigation of LBA-promoting factors led to a marked decrease or disappearance of support for Deuterostomia.
The findings suggest that previous support for Deuterostomia may be an artifact of systematic error.

Conclusions:

The monophyly of Deuterostomia, a cornerstone of animal phylogeny, is questionable when systematic errors are accounted for.
A very short or non-existent deuterostome branch has significant implications for interpreting early animal evolution, including fossil records and the nature of the bilaterian ancestor.