Taxa
Orthonectida
Phylum
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Orthonectida is a small phylum of simple, worm like animals that live as parasites inside marine invertebrates such as flatworms, mollusks, and brittle stars. Orthonectids alternate between a parasitic stage living within host tissue and a brief free living stage in which sexually mature males and females swim in seawater to reproduce, and because of their greatly simplified body structure the evolutionary relationship of the phylum to other animal groups has long been debated.
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