common ancestor
Mutual evolutionary root
A common ancestor is an organism or species from which two or more different organisms or species are descended.
In evolutionary biology, all life shares common ancestors if you trace lineages back far enough—humans and chimpanzees share a relatively recent one, humans and oak trees a far more distant one.
The term also applies to genealogy: We discovered we share a common ancestor five generations back.
Evolutionary relationships among organisms
- speciationFormation of distinct species
- divergenceSeparation from common origin
- evolutionary treeDiagram of ancestral relationships
- cladisticsClassification by common descent
homology · natural selection · mitochondrial DNA · fossil record · monophyletic · coalescence · branching point
Chart of ancestors
- pedigreeRecord of descent
- bloodlineAncestry through generations
- lineageDescent from progenitors
- descentDownward slope or lineage
forebears · progenitor · roots · generations · kinship · heritage · patriarch · matriarch
Point of creation
- sourcePoint of origin
- rootUnderground absorbing structure
- beginningInitial stage of something
- primordialExisting from the start
ancient · prehistoric · dawn · emergence · foundation · starting point · primitive · archaic
Classificatory group of organisms
- cladeMonophyletic taxonomic group
- nodeConnection point in networks
- basalOf the foundation
- sister groupNearest branch in phylogeny
outgroup · archetype · prototype · morphology · comparative anatomy
phylogeny
Evolutionary relationships among organisms
- speciationFormation of distinct species
- divergenceSeparation from common origin
- evolutionary treeDiagram of ancestral relationships
cladistics · homology · natural selection · mitochondrial DNA · fossil record · monophyletic · coalescence · branching point
family tree
Chart of ancestors
descent · forebears · progenitor · roots · generations · kinship · heritage · patriarch · matriarch · family history
genesis
Point of creation
primordial · ancient · prehistoric · dawn · emergence · foundation · starting point · primitive · archaic · prototypical
taxon
Classificatory group of organisms
sister group · outgroup · archetype · prototype · morphology · comparative anatomy
- evolutionevolution, natural selection, mutation, adaptation, speciation
- ancestorsforebears, forebear, forbear, forbears, forefather
- ancestrykinship, clan, bloodline, dynasty, forefather
- human evolutionhuman evolution, hominid, hominids, hominins, hominin
- phylogeneticscladogram, clade, phylogeny, phylogenetics, cladistics
- hereditygenes, DNA, gene, chromosomes, genetics
common ancestorprogeny
One's biological descendants
descendant · offspring · posterity · future generations · direct descendant
common, ancestor, commonly, ancestry, uncommon, ancestors, ancestral, uncommonly, commonality