Early attempts to infer molecular phylogenies of Taenia have been hampered by the availability of different species, and the application of relatively crude models of molecular evolution. Nevertheless, two studies provide perspective in assessing estimates from new complete mtDNA and the morphological data. De Queiroz and Alkire [57] compiled available partial cox1 data and partial nuclear large subunit (28S) rDNA data to infer a phylogeny including 11 species of Taenia. Lavikainen et al. [58] sampled multiple isolates of 9 Taenia species for partial cox1 and partial nad1 genes; this built on data collected by Gasser et al. [59]. In each of these studies, all the species for which complete mtDNAs are now available were included, thus allowing direct comparison of phylogenetic estimates of 7 species of Taenia.