| Caelestes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Illustration ofMeteora sporadica | |
| Video of the sun-like form ofSolarion arienae | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Clade: | Diaphoretickes (?) |
| Clade: | Disparia |
| Clade: | Membrifera |
| Phylum: | Caelestes Valt & Čepička, 2025 |
| Genera | |
Caelestes is aphylum ofeukaryotic microbes in the superorderDisparia. The name is derived from theLatin wordcaelestis, which refers to heavenly entities. This alludes to the similarity in morphology of the two named genera in this family—Meteora andSolarion—to the shape of celestial bodies: a meteor and the Sun, respectively. Members of this clade are distinguished by the presence of a unique type of stalkedextrusome bearing a unique structure called a celestiosome. Celestiosomes are used to pierce prey (generallybacteria) with a central filament, immobilizing it and allowing it to be drawn toward the cell.[1]
In their 2025 description of theSolarion arienae, Valt and colleagues usedphylogenomic analyses to determine its relationships and affinities with other 'protists'. The researchers formulated a dataset comprising 87 taxa representing the known diversity of eukaryotic organisms, based on 240protein-coding genes and 77,133amino acid sites. The novel clade Caelestes was recovered as thesister taxon to theHemimastigophora. The year prior,Meteora had been discovered to have affinities with hemimastigophorans.[2] Using an ELM+C60+G4 model, which excels in predicting sites where rapid evolution occurs, amaximum-likelihood tree was created, recreated in thecladogram below:[1]
