Choanozoa

Choanozoa (Greek: χόανος (choanos) = "funnel" + ζῶον (zōon) = "animal") is the name of a phylum of protists that belongs to the line of opisthokonts.

Most appear closer to the animals than to the fungi, and they are of great interest to biologists studying animal origins. The chytrids have also been included among the Protista, but are now more often placed among the Fungi.

It has been suggested that the nucleariids are in fact a sister group to the fungi, and that the rest of the classes form a monophyletic or paraphyletic sister group to the animals.

The great kingdoms and their stem groups.Phylogeny based on:

• Eichinger, L.; Pachebat, J.A.; Glöckner, G.; Rajandream, M.A.; Sucgang, R.; Berriman, M.; Song, J.; Olsen, R.; Szafranski, K.; Xu, Q.; Others, (2005). "The genome of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum". Nature 435 (7038): 43-57. doi:10.1038/nature03481. 
• Steenkamp, E.T.; Wright, J.; Baldauf, S.L. (2006). "The Protistan Origins of Animals and Fungi". Molecular Biology and Evolution 23 (1): 93-106. doi:10.1093/molbev/msj011. 

See also

• Unikonts
  • Opisthokonts
• Bikonts

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