The oldest fossil agnathans appeared in the Cambrian, and two groups still survive today: the lampreys and the hagfish, comprising about 120 species in total. Hagfish are considered members of the subphylumVertebrata, because they secondarily lost vertebrae; before this event was inferred from molecular[6][7][11] and developmental[12] data, the Craniata hypothesis was accepted (and is still sometimes used as a strictly morphological descriptor) to reference hagfish plus vertebrates.
^Märss, T.; Miller, C.G. (2004). "Thelodonts and distribution of associated conodonts from the Llandovery-lowermost Lochkovian of the Welsh Borderland". Palaeontology. 47 (5): 1211–1265. Bibcode:2004Palgy..47.1211M. doi:10.1111/j.0031-0239.2004.00409.x. [W. Kiessling/M. Krause/E. Ito]
^ abcMallatt, J.; Sullivan, J. (December 1998). "28S and 18S rDNA sequences support the monophyly of lampreys and hagfishes". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 15 (12): 1706–1718. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a025897. PMID9866205.
^ abcDelarbre C, Gallut C, Barriel V, Janvier P, Gachelin G (February 2002). "Complete mitochondrial DNA of the hagfish, Eptatretus burgeri: The comparative analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences strongly supports the cyclostome monophyly". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 22 (2): 184–92. Bibcode:2002MolPE..22..184D. doi:10.1006/mpev.2001.1045. PMID11820840.
^Janvier, P. (November 2010). "MicroRNAs revive old views about jawless vertebrate divergence and evolution". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 107 (45): 19137–19138. Bibcode:2010PNAS..10719137J. doi:10.1073/pnas.1014583107. PMC2984170. PMID21041649. Although I was among the early supporters of vertebrate paraphyly, I am impressed by the evidence provided by Heimberg et al. and prepared to admit that cyclostomes are, in fact, monophyletic. The consequence is that they may tell us little, if anything, about the dawn of vertebrate evolution, except that the intuitions of 19th century zoologists were correct in assuming that these odd vertebrates (notably, hagfishes) are strongly degenerate and have lost many characters over time.