polyphyletic
developed from more than one ancestral type, as a group of animals.
Origin of polyphyletic
1Other words from polyphyletic
- pol·y·phy·let·i·cal·ly, adverb
Words Nearby polyphyletic
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How to use polyphyletic in a sentence
Griffiths clearly showed that Noble's Brachycephalidae was a polyphyletic assemblage.
The mystic notion that the human soul will live forever after death has had a polyphyletic origin.
The problem of the monophyletic or polyphyletic origin of the human race has also been much discussed.
Evolution in Modern Thought | Ernst HaeckelThe real difficulty of classification of the fungi lies in the polyphyletic nature of the group.
A collective polyphyletic or heterogeneous group, originally cosmopolitan; with certainty existing since the Miocene.
British Dictionary definitions for polyphyletic
/ (ˌpɒlɪfaɪˈlɛtɪk) /
biology relating to or characterized by descent from more than one ancestral group of animals or plants
Origin of polyphyletic
1Derived forms of polyphyletic
- polyphyletically, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for polyphyletic
[ pŏl′ē-fī-lĕt′ĭk ]
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. Compare monophyletic paraphyletic.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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