Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The evolutionary development and history of a species or trait of a species or of a higher taxonomic grouping of organisms.
- noun A model or diagram delineating such an evolutionary history.
- noun A similar model or diagram delineating the development of a cultural feature.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun That branch of biology which attempts to deduce the ancestral history of an animal or a plant from its ontogeny or individual developmental metamorphoses; tribal history: opposed to ontogeny, or the origin and development of individual organisms. Also
phylogenesis .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun systematics The
evolutionary history of anorganism . - noun systematics, informal A
phylogenetic diagram . - noun The
historical development of a human social or racial group
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (biology) the sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Understanding a phylogeny is a lot like reading a family tree.
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Professor Haeckel in his Generelle Morphologie and in other works, has recently brought his great knowledge and abilities to bear on what he calls phylogeny, or the lines of descent of all organic beings.
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Professor Haeckel in his “Generelle Morphologie” and in another works, has recently brought his great knowledge and abilities to bear on what he calls phylogeny, or the lines of descent of all organic beings.
Iconoclasts of Evolution: Haeckel, Behe, Wells & the Ontogeny of a Fraud - The Panda's Thumb 2005
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Mr. Darwin says, "Professor Haeckel, in his general Morphology and other works, has brought his great knowledge and abilities to bear on what he calls phylogeny or the lines of descent of all organic beings."
The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, Volume 1, January, 1880 Various
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Professor Häckel in his Generelle Morphologie, and in other works, has recently brought his great knowledge and abilities to bear on what he calls phylogeny, or the lines of descent of all organic beings.
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A phylogeny is a nested hierarchy of descendant relationships and is closely allied to taxonomy.
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Even though it pains me to disagree, and especially because of fine gentleman like Allen MacNeill, I do not view evolutionary theory (as in phylogeny and natural selection) as science.
Aiguy's Computer 2008
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If this new phylogeny is valid (I should note by the way that Wake was on the authorship of Mueller et al., so it's not as if this study disagrees with his own research), it means that we have to re-assess the evolution of the different life history strategies seen in plethodontids.
Archive 2006-06-01 Darren Naish 2006
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Incidentally, exactly how microbiotheriids fit into marsupial phylogeny is a hotly debated topic that would require a post all its own.
Archive 2006-03-01 Darren Naish 2006
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In any case, similar arguments have been made for over a hundred years (see the eye, the feature, major transitions in phylogeny, the complement system, etc.)
hernesheir commented on the word phylogeny
Wasn't phylogeny supposed to recapitulate something?
December 2, 2010