Summary: Though their genomes harbor genes that pattern specific cell-types and structures in bilaterians, cnidarians, placozoans, and sponges lack morphologically recognizable counterparts of these cells/structures. For example, cnidarians have neurons that are not organized into a centralized nervous system, and placozoans and sponges don't have neurons yet their genomes have many genes for neural patterning and function. Neural markers reveal that Nematostella vectensis has functionally distinct neuronal populations that are regionalized along the oral-aboral axis. LIM homeobox (Lhx) transcription factors are a novel animal family that diversified before the radiation of animals and may pattern neuronal identity in Nematostella.