common ancestors
Mutual family origins
Common ancestors are individuals from whom two or more people, species, or groups are descended.
In genealogy, your common ancestor with a cousin is a shared grandparent.
In evolutionary biology, the term describes the ancestral species from which different lineages diverged: Humans and chimpanzees share a common ancestor that lived millions of years ago.
The concept anchors discussions of relatedness—the more recent the common ancestor, the closer the relationship.
- originsPoints where things start
- Adam and EveBiblical original humans
- phylogenyEvolutionary relationships among organisms
- cladisticsClassification by common descent
- human evolutionOur species' biological origin
speciation · lineages · progenitors · origin myths · forebears · tree of life · coalescence · clade · heredity · apes · missing link · descent · homology · evolutionary biology · hominid · genealogy · primates · bloodline
- DNA ancestryDNA test, DNA match, genetic genealogy, haplogroup, genetic match
common ancestorsdescendants
Those who come after
progeny · offspring · posterity · heirs · successors
common ancestorsconvergent evolution
Independent origin of similar features
common, ancestor, commonly, ancestry, uncommon, ancestors, commune, communal, ancestral