NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Monophyletic group

In phylogenetics, a group is monophyletic (Greek: "of one race") if it consists of a common ancestor and all its descendants. A taxonomic group that contain organisms but not their common ancestor is called polyphyletic, and a group that contains some but not all descendants of the most recent common ancestor is called paraphyletic. In biology, phylogenetics (Greek: phylon = tribe, race and genetikos = relative to birth, from genesis = birth) is the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms (e. ... In biology, a taxon is polyphyletic if it is descended from more than one root form (in Greek poly = many and phyletic = racial). ... Paraphyletic - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

For example, all organisms in the genus Homo are believed to have come from the same ancestral form in the family Hominidae, and no other descendants are known. Thus the genus Homo is monophyletic. If, on the other hand, it were discovered that Homo habilis had developed from a different ancestor than Homo sapiens, and this ancestor were not included in the genus, then the genus would be polyphyletic. Since biologists by and large prefer groups to be monophyletic, in this case, they would likely either split the genus or broaden it to include the additional forms. Species Homo sapiens See text for extinct species. ... Genera Subfamily Ponginae Pongo - Orangutans Gigantopithecus (extinct) Sivapithecus (extinct) Lufengpithecus (extinct) Ankarapithecus (extinct) Subfamily Homininae Gorilla - Gorillas Pan - Chimpanzees Homo - Humans Dryopithecus (extinct) Ouranopithecus (extinct) Paranthropus (extinct) Australopithecus (extinct) Sahelanthropus (extinct) Orrorin (extinct) Ardipithecus (extinct) Kenyanthropus (extinct) Pierolapithecus (extinct) (tentative) The hominids are the members of the biological family Hominidae... In biology, a genus (plural genera) is a taxonomic grouping. ... Binomial name Homo habilis Leakey et al, 1964 Homo habilis Â«HOH moh HAB uh luhsÂ» (handy man, skillful person) is a species of the genus Homo, which lived from approximately 2. ... Human beings are defined variously in biological, spiritual, and cultural terms, or in combinations thereof. ... A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of organisms. ...

Evolutionary taxonomists use the term holophyletic for the sort of groups discussed here, whereby monophyly includes both holophyly and paraphyly. Evolutionary taxonomy or evolutionary systematics seeks to classify organisms using a combination of phylogenetic relationship and overall similarity. ... In phylogenetics, a grouping of organisms is said to be paraphyletic (Greek para = near and phyle = race) if all the members of the group have a common ancestor, but the group does not include all the descendants of the most recent common ancestor of all group members. ...