diphyletic

[dahy-fahy-let-ik]

adjective

Biology.

1. of or relating to a taxonomic group of organisms derived from two separate ancestral lines.

diphyletic

/ ˌdaɪfaɪˈlɛtɪk /

adjective

1. relating to or characterized by descent from two ancestral groups of animals or plants

Word History and Origins

Origin of diphyletic¹

First recorded in 1900–05; di- ¹ + phyletic

Example Sentences

All of this work is most detailed and laborious, and has produced a great quantity of data useful to morphologists, but the diphyletic theory is not widely adopted; the evidence adduced for it seems to consist largely of minutiae which, taken by themselves, are inconclusive, or lend themselves to other interpretation.

From Project Gutenberg