The story:
New Tree Of Life Divides All Lower Metazoans From Higher Animals, Molecular Research Confirms
The response:
“It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another” (Charles Darwin, 1837)
More information:
Understanding evolutionary trees
Do early branching lineages signify ancestral traits?
Which side of the tree is more basal?
(By the way, Rob DeSalle, who is quoted in the story, was one of my postdoc advisors and he definitely understands phylogenies — but the story is pretty sloppy nonetheless)
