The research article download "Integrative phylogenomics places sponges at the root of the animal tree" was published in Science, Volume 391, Number 6785, Page 564, February 2026.[5] The original article was published November 2025 in Science, Volume 390, Issue 6774, Pages 751-756.[2] Editor-in-Chief H. Holden Thorp announced the retraction.[5] The original study by Jacob L. Steenwyk and Nicole King analyzed data from 100 genomes and transcriptomes of sponges, ctenophores, corals, bilaterians, and other related organisms.[1][2] They used integrative phylogenomics, which combines concatenation and coalescence methods to identify genes with a consistent phylogenetic signal.[1][2] Of the 785 topological tests, 490 were statistically significant and all supported the sponge hypothesis as a sister group to the rest of the animals; no test supported the ctenophore hypothesis, and 295 tests were equivocal.[1][2]