The Amphimedon queenslandica genome and the evolution of animal complexity

The Amphimedon queenslandica draft genome contains many metazoan signalling, transcription-factor, adhesion and cell-cycle gene families despite the adult sponge lacking eumetazoan organs.

The Amphimedon queenslandica draft genome and comparative gene-family analyses document a living demosponge genomic sample; they do not make this species an ancestral animal or a proxy for all Porifera.

Amphimedon queenslandica has no supported scalar species range in the cited evidence: the genome paper samples a living sponge but does not date the species origin or fossil duration, so the former 0–0 placeholder is withheld.

Srivastava et al. report a draft genome from the living demosponge Amphimedon queenslandica; it contains many metazoan signalling, transcription-factor, adhesion and cell-cycle gene families despite the adult sponge lacking eumetazoan organs. This sampled genome does not represent a literal ancestral animal or all Porifera.

The study figures adult, embryo and larval stages and reports a draft assembly of approximately 167 Mb; genome content is distinct from a reconstruction of ancestral anatomy.

The primary study identifies Amphimedon queenslandica as a demosponge from the Great Barrier Reef; this profile maps the living sample locality only.

The study describes the adult as filtering microbes and particulate organic matter with flagellated collar cells; this is living-species ecology, not an early-animal ecological reconstruction.