Is daphnia as closely related to us as cats and dogs are?

Daphnia, commonly known as water fleas, are crustaceans and belong to a different branch of the animal kingdom compared to mammals like cats and dogs. While both daphnia and mammals share a common ancestor, the evolutionary divergence between them occurred much earlier. Therefore, daphnia are not as closely related to humans as cats and dogs are, which share a more recent common ancestor within the mammalian lineage.