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 ...

But starting in 2008, a series of studies rocked the base of the animal tree, suggesting that ctenophores (comb jellies) were the ancestral model instead. Yesterday (November 30), an international ...

Classified as Ctenophores, their bodies are transparent and shaped like the meat of a walnut. Unlike Jellyfish Lake and its skincrawling images full of stinging residents, this aquatic trickster ...