Аннотация:The diversity of neural systems across 34 animal phyla is astonishing (Bullock and Horridge, 1965; Schmidt-Rhaesa et al., 2015), with no recognized neuronal homologies among three basal eumetazoan lineages: Ctenophora, Cnidaria, and Bilateria. The remarkable molecular heterogeneity of neurons led to the hypothesis of independent origins of neurons in these lineages (Moroz, 2009; 2012). Genomic and phylogenetic data provided the initial evidence that neurons might evolve more than once (Moroz et al., 2014; Moroz and Kohn, 2016) or even three times (Moroz et al., 2021b) as a result of convergent evolution from the last nerveless ancestor of all Metazoa. To the best of our knowledge, the single origin of neurons is not supported by existing data, and this historically broadly accepted scenario should be critically evaluated as any other hypothesis. However, identifying deep, hierarchically complex, and distant homologies across phyla, especially at the level of specific cells or neuronal populations, is a highly controversial topic with no established criteria. Here, we provide a brief historical overview of the homology concept and then will discuss its applications to diverse nervous systems of invertebrates targeting the level of individual functionally characterized neurons, controlling specific behaviors.