phylogeny
Americannoun
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the development or evolution of a particular group of organisms.
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the evolutionary history of a group of organisms, especially as depicted in a family tree.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of phylogeny
Explanation
Use the noun phylogeny to describe the branch of biology that focuses on evolution and the differences between species. You're most likely to come across the word phylogeny in a biology class. It's another term for "phylogenetics," the study of evolution, diversity, and the way different organisms and species are related to each other. The German biologist Ernst Heinrich Haeckel was the first to use the word phylogeny, in 1866, and Darwin used it soon after. It combines the Greek phylos, "race," with geneia, "origin."
Vocabulary lists containing phylogeny
Evolutionary Biology - High School
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Evolutionary Biology - Middle School
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Evolutionary BIology - Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Phylogeny is important to everyday life in human society.
From Textbooks • Jun. 9, 2022
Phylogeny is the science that describes the relative connections between organisms, in terms of ancestral and descendant species.
From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015
Phylogeny of iguanian lizards inferred from 29 nuclear loci, and a comparison of concatenated and species-tree approaches for an ancient, rapid radiation.
From Scientific American • Jan. 17, 2014
Figure 1: Phylogeny and constrained elements from the 29 eutherian mammalian genome sequences. a, A phylogenetic tree of all 29 mammals used in this analysis based on the substitution rates in the MultiZ alignments.
From Nature • Oct. 26, 2011
If we cannot construct a "tree" for fowls, how absurd to adventure into the deeper recesses of Phylogeny.
From Science and Morals and Other Essays by Windle, Bertram Coghill Alan, Sir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
