Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to a group of organisms containing taxa descended from two different ancestral lines.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In zoology, having two sets of ancestors; derived from two distinct groups of animals.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • However, molecular studies have consistently found mangabeys to be diphyletic, with the six terrestrial mangabey species forming a clade with drills and mandrills (and with macaques too in some studies), and the two arboreal mangabeys forming a clade with baboons and geladas.

    Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • Skeletal and dental morphology supports diphyletic origin of baboons and mandrills.

    Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • If correct, this diphyletic take on mangabey affinities would mean that geladas, baboons, drills and mandrills do not form a clade of ‘dog-faced cercopithecids’ as conventionally thought.

    Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • Bush warblers are particularly newsworthy right now (to my mind at any rate) given that the just-published oscine supertree of Jønsson & Fjeldså (2006) found Cettia to be diphyletic, with C. cetti grouping with the tesias* and Urosphena (the stubtails) while the Japanese bush warbler C. diphone grouped with the Broad-billed flycatcher-warbler Tickellia hodgsoni and Orthotomus (the tailorbirds).

    Archive 2006-05-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • Some morphology supports a diphyletic relationship within the Chiroptera.

    How to make a bat - The Panda's Thumb 2006

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