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

See Examples For:

polyphyletic

They are a polyphyletic group of organisms that share characteristics, rather than sharing a single common ancestor.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015

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

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

The real difficulty of classification of the fungi lies in the polyphyletic nature of the group.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 11, Slice 3 "Frost" to "Fyzabad" by Various