Analyses in 2007 and 2008 revealed that the Stramenopiles and the Alveolata are related, and form a reduced
clade of what were seen to be a
paraphyletic group, the
chromalveolates. The two clades together with the
Rhizaria (originally one of the six major
eukaryote groups) form a clade dubbed the
SAR supergroup.[3][4][5]
A
phylogenomic analysis from 2016 cast doubt on Halvaria, suggesting that Alveolata is the sister group to
Rhizaria (making the R + A clade) through new rhizarian sequence data, and that support for Halvaria might be an artifact of low
taxon sampling as well as
long branch attraction.[6]
However, later analyses from 2021 support Halvaria as a solid clade.[7]