Oldfart,

Yes, it’s rare for a new animal to form a new phylum. It’s interesting to note though that Dendrogramma’s resemblance to several long (thought) gone Ediacaran lifeforms raises the possibility that we have a living representative of a Precambrian community. Of course, the appearance could be a coincidence. Convergent evolution is not uncommon. When other samples become available for DNA analysis we’ll be better able to make that distinction.

The discovery reminds me again of how much of Earth still waits to be explored.

__________________
Eudaimonia