Central to this debate is the question of which group represents the first branch of the animal family tree: sponges, the simple filter-feeders, or ctenophores, also known as comb jellies ...

“It’s very exciting because there’s been a lot of debate about early animal evolution,” said John Finnerty, a professor of biology at Boston University, who was not involved in the study. Part of the ...

But in reality, your family tree is much more like a movie than this ... It can also be used to track the emergence of viruses, the divergence of animal populations and other genealogical tracking.