polyphyletic

American  

[pol-ee-fahy-let-ik] / ˌpɒl i faɪˈlɛt ɪk /

adjective

1. developed from more than one ancestral type, as a group of animals.

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polyphyletic British  

/ ˌpɒlɪfaɪˈlɛtɪk /

adjective

1. biology relating to or characterized by descent from more than one ancestral group of animals or plants

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polyphyletic Scientific  

/ pŏl′ē-fī-lĕt′ĭk /

1. Relating to a taxonomic group that does not include the common ancestor of the members of the group and whose members have two or more separate origins. A group that consists of flying vertebrates would be polyphyletic, as bats and birds independently evolved flight and do not share a common ancestor.

2. Compare monophyletic paraphyletic

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Other Word Forms

• polyphyletically adverb

Etymology

Origin of polyphyletic

First recorded in 1870–75; poly- + phyletic

Example Sentences

Monocots include grasses and lilies, and eudicots or dicots form a polyphyletic group.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

Both cydippid and lobate ctenophores, previously viewed as monophyletic clades, were recovered polyphyletic, indicating independent loss of both the cydippid larval stage and tentacle apparatus.

From Nature • May 20, 2014

The divisions of fungi are the Chytridiomycota, Zygomycota, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Glomeromycota, and the Deuteromycota, a polyphyletic group.

From Textbooks • Apr. 25, 2013

They lay in a galaxy of 3,000 lush islands, sitting astride the equator and peopled by a polyphyletic mass of 72 million souls.

From Time Magazine Archive

We must not forget, however, that the conversion of the five-toed foot into a prehensile hand is polyphyletic.

From The Evolution of Man — Volume 2 by Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August