monophyletic group
One ancestor's descendants
A monophyletic group is a set of organisms comprising an ancestor and all of its descendants—a complete branch of the evolutionary tree.
Biologists consider monophyletic groups the only valid basis for classification: birds form a monophyletic group, but "reptiles" traditionally don't because the category excludes birds.
Also called a clade.
Monophyletic taxonomic group
- common ancestorOrigin point of descendants
- cladisticsClassification by common descent
- cladogramDiagram of evolutionary branching
- outgroupNon-members of one's group
ingroup · parsimony · bifurcation · branching · node
Formation of distinct species
- natural selectionDifferential reproductive success
- homologyStructural similarity through descent
- evolutionary treeDiagram of ancestral relationships
- DarwinismNatural selection theory
divergence · common descent · macroevolution · microevolution · biogeography · coevolution · convergent evolution · radiation
Systematic grouping by traits
- systematicsScience of classifying organisms
- taxaClassification categories
- nomenclatureSystem of specialized terms
- speciesFinest taxonomic rank
genus · family · order · class · phylum · kingdom · domain · rank
Reading nucleotide base order
- genetic markersIdentifiable DNA sequence locations
- genomicsStudy of entire genetic sequences
- coalescenceUniting into one mass
- sequence alignmentArranging molecular strings for comparison
clade
Monophyletic taxonomic group
- common ancestorOrigin point of descendants
- cladisticsClassification by common descent
- cladogramDiagram of evolutionary branching
outgroup · ingroup · parsimony · bifurcation · branching · node
speciation
Formation of distinct species
- natural selectionDifferential reproductive success
- homologyStructural similarity through descent
- evolutionary treeDiagram of ancestral relationships
Darwinism · divergence · common descent · macroevolution · microevolution · biogeography · coevolution · convergent evolution · radiation · diversification
classification
Systematic grouping by traits
- systematicsScience of classifying organisms
- taxaClassification categories
- nomenclatureSystem of specialized terms
species · genus · family · order · class · phylum · kingdom · domain · rank · Linnaean
DNA sequencing
Reading nucleotide base order
- genetic markersIdentifiable DNA sequence locations
- genomicsStudy of entire genetic sequences
- coalescenceUniting into one mass
sequence alignment · nucleotide · mitochondrial DNA · conserved sequences
- taxonomygenus, species, taxon, kingdom, phylum
- phylogeneticscladogram, clade, phylogeny, phylogenetics, cladistics