"List" of Zoanthids that have/don't have palytoxins...?

[Sharkbait19]

Species used to be classified by morphological distinction because that was the best way to infer phylogeny at the time; now we have genetic analysis which, although not perfect, is a much better indicator of phylogeny. The taxonomy of organisms is supposed to best reflect their phylogeny; classifying species through morphological traits can lead to polyphyletic classificaitons due to convergent evolution or certain traits not being good indicators of phylogeny. Even if someone is knowledge in morphology, depending on which traits they choose to look at, the classifications can be completely wrong.

Of course. Though in the case of Z. Vietnamensis, its phylogeny has been delineated by genetic analysis, and it can also be identified morphologically based on the knowledge we have. While DNA evidence is the best method for identifying the ancestry of any species, especially new species, in the case of this thread (and zoa ID in general, when we typically don’t have the tools at our disposal), morphology seems to be a pretty good method of determining identification.