Fig. 6

Studies of character evolution reveal a dynamic history of gain and loss for each trait examined. We conducted stochastic character mapping [53, 55] on our cnidarian ingroup topology (branch lengths not shown) for each character state included. Ancestral state reconstructions of each character at each node are shown as pie charts representing posterior probabilities. The color-coded presence or absence of each character is shown at Right. Our results suggest that the ancestral state of Cnidaria was a non-symbiotic, solitary polyp, however, other characters are equivocal at this node