Filozoa


The Filozoa are a monophyletic grouping within the Opisthokonta. They include animals and their nearest unicellular relatives.
Three groups are currently assigned to the clade Filozoa:
From Latin filum meaning "thread" and Greek zōion meaning "animal".

Phylogeny

A phylogenetic tree is The holomycota tree is following Tedersoo et al.

Characteristics

The ancestral opisthokont cell is assumed to have possessed slender filose projections or 'tentacles'. In some opisthokonts these were lost. They are retained in Filozoa, where they are simple and non-tapering, with a rigid core of actin bundles. In choanoflagellates and in the most primitive animals, namely sponges, they aggregate into a filter-feeding collar around the cilium or flagellum; this is thought to be an inheritance from their most recent common filozoan ancestor.