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| 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 |
| Subphyla | |
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. |
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