Corillamorphs and descending evolution

[Anonymous]

Eric,
one of the q's on the quiz deals with their being the ancestors of Scleractinia, I feel like I have a grasp of the subject material , but in reading the texts (both EIS and Veron, and AC) I could find little info on the subject, You mentioned in the chat that there is an article by Fautin, might you elaborate on the subject and post the article?

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[Anonymous]

From
Fautin, D.G. and J.M.Lowenstein. 1992. Phylogentic relationships among scleractinians. actinians, and corallimorpharians (Coelenterata:Anthozoa) Proc 7th Int Coral Reef Symp Manila 2: 665-670

Abstract. Using radioirnmunoassay, with Ceriantharia as the outgroup. we tested whether coralli
morpharians are so closely related to scleractinians that they should be considered members of that order. From analysis of distance data, we infer that the two lineages of corallimorpharians (tropical, plate-like zooxanthellate forms and largely temperate/deep sea, columnar, azooxanthellate ones) are as closely related to a lineage of deep-sea corals as they are to one another. We therefore concur with the minority opinion that Corallimorpharia does not constitute an order distinct from and equivalent in rank to Scleractinia. We further infer that Actiniaria, which branches from a different lineage of Scleractinia, may not represent a separate order, either. These data support morphological evidence that scleractinians are ancestral to corallimorpharians and actinians, contrary to the general paradigm. We speculate that both corallimorpharians and actinians may have had multiple origins from corals, and that other groups of non-skeletalized polyps, now extinct, may also have arisen from corals.