Continenticola is a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

that includes the

land planarian Geoplanidae is a family of flatworms known commonly as land planarians or land flatworms. These flatworms are mainly predators of other invertebrates, which they hunt, attack and capture using physical force and the adhesive and digestive prope ...

s (Geoplanidae) and the freshwater triclads (

Dendrocoelidae Dendrocoelidae is a family of freshwater tricladida flatworms that has a holarctic distribution. The largest freshwater triclad known belongs to this family, it's up to 40 cm in length and inhabits the Lake Baikal. Description The famil ...

Dugesiidae Dugesiidae is a family of freshwater planarians distributed worldwide (except Antarctica). The type genus is ''Dugesia'' Girard, 1850.Ball, I. R.: A contribution to the phylogeny and biogeography of the freshwater triclads (Platyhelminthes: Tur ...

Kenkiidae Kenkiidae is a family of freshwater triclads. Their species can be found sporadically in caves, groundwater, and deep lakes in Central Asia, Far East and North America.Ball, I. R.: A contribution to the phylogeny and biogeography of the freshwa ...

and

Planariidae Planariidae is a family (biology), family of freshwater Tricladida, planarians. The type genus is ''Planaria'' Müller, 1776.Ball IR: A contribution to the phylogeny and biogeography of the freshwater triclads (Platyhelminthes: Turbellaria). Bi ...

Phylogeny

On the basis of molecular evidences, Carranza and colleagues suggested in 1998 that the families of freshwater and land flatworms must be grouped together in a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

group that they coined Continenticola. This grouping was accepted by Ronald Sluys in 2009. Despite the molecular evidences, there are no morphological

apomorphies In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to have ...

supporting this clade. Phylogenetic supertree after Sluys et al., 2009:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5165347