Myxosporea [SEP] parent taxon
Myxosporea
Myxosporea is a subclass of microscopic parasites, belonging to the Myxozoa clade within Cnidaria. They have a complex life cycle which comprises vegetative forms in two hosts, an aquatic invertebrate (generally an annelid) and an ectothermic vertebrate, usually a fish. Each host releases a different type of spore. The two forms of spore are so different that until recently they were treated as belonging to different classes within the Myxozoa.
Taxonomic status.
The taxonomy of both actinosporeans and myxosporeans was originally based on spore morphology.
Taxon in disguise
In bacteriology, a taxon in disguise is a species, genus or higher unit of biological classification whose evolutionary history reveals has evolved from another unit of similar or lower rank, making the parent unit paraphyletic. This happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear radically different from the ancestral group, so that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, leaving the latter an evolutionary grade.
While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of