Craniata
(Redirected from Craniates)
| Craniata Temporal range: Early Cambrian - Recent
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| Pacific hagfish resting on bottom down off Oregon coast. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Phylum: | |
| (unranked): | Craniata Janvier 1981
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| Subphyla | |
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Cephalaspidomorphi (disputed) | |
Craniata (sometimes Craniota) is a proposed clade of chordate animals that contains the vertebrates (subphylum Vertebrata) and Myxini (hagfish) as living representatives. Craniata includes all animals with a skull, or cranium, as the name suggests.
These two taxa lack proper vertebrae, which are characteristic for vertebrates according to the new interpretation, whereas traditionally—and confusingly—they were not (Hickman et al., 2007).
Wikispecies has information on: Craniata.
