Where on the evolutionary tree is rotifera?

[John Logsdon]

Milverneus Millerion (miller at diamond.jcn1.com) wrote:
: I was lead to believe that rotifera was produced after colenterata, ie, 
: that rotifers evolved from jellyfish and that the rotifers were the first
: to produce the innovation of an alimentary canal as well as an organized
: nervous system (centralized in pseudo'brain').  From the rotifers then
: were produced trocophorita (which branched out into mulloska, 
: brachiopada, most worms, annelida (segmented worms), trilobita, 
: crustacia, millipedes, centipedes, arachnids, and insecta) and the other
: branch which produced echinodermata and the chordates (vertebrates and
: man).  Am I wrong in saying that rotifera has those traits that place
: them between jellyfish and the more advanced forms?  If not what exists
: with regard to the relations of those forms?

Have a look at very recent paper in J. Mol. Evol. 43: 287-292 by Garey et al.

"Molecular evidence for Acanthocephala as a Subtaxon of Rotifera"

Good luck,

John Logsdon