The Benthozoa or Myriazoa are a proposed

basal animal Marine life, sea life, or ocean life is the plants, animals and other organisms that live in the salt water of seas or oceans, or the brackish water of coastal estuaries. At a fundamental level, marine life affects the nature of the planet. ...

clade consisting of the Porifera and

ParaHoxozoa ParaHoxozoa (or Parahoxozoa) is a clade of animals that consists of Bilateria, Placozoa, and Cnidaria. The relationship of this clade relative to the two other animal lineages Ctenophora and Porifera is debated. Some phylogenomic studies have pr ...

as sister of the

Ctenophora Ctenophora (; ctenophore ; ) comprise a phylum of marine invertebrates, commonly known as comb jellies, that inhabit sea waters worldwide. They are notable for the groups of cilia they use for swimming (commonly referred to as "combs"), and ...

. An alternative phylogeny is given by the Porifera-sister hypothesis in which Porifera are the first diverging animal group.

References

Animal taxa {{animal-stub