Talk:Secernentea

Historically, the phylum Nematoda was divided into 2 main classes: Secernentea and Aphasmidia. That categorization was primarily based on the important morphalogical feature of the presence or absence of phasmids, the sensory and excretory organs of the tail. However, with molecular analysis increasingly coming to the fore, this important taxonomic distinction appears to not match the phylogeny of Nematoda. Today, what used to be known as the class Secernentia has been downgraded to a mere order, called Rhabditida, within the class Chromadorea. For authority, see e.g., the 2006 article by Paul De Ley, "A quick tour of nematode diversity and the backbone of the backbone of nematode phylogeny," in WormBook.

It seems that the original 2 classes of Secernentea and Aphasmidia were replaced by the 2 classes of Chromadorea and Enoplea. Now there is research suggesting that Enoplea is polyphylletic, but that is a story for a different article. This article on Secernentea should be elaborated upon to show the historical importance of the name, its taxonomic downgrading and present placement within Chromadorea, and its new moniker of Rhabtidia.Ray Glock-Grueneich (talk) 16:02, 30 March 2018 (UTC)