sister group
Closest phylogenetic relative
Sister group is a term from evolutionary biology for two lineages that share an immediate common ancestor—they branched from the same point on the tree of life.
Birds are the sister group to crocodilians; together they form Archosauria.
Researchers identified fungi as the sister group to animals.
The concept is fundamental to cladistics and phylogenetic classification.
- cladeMonophyletic taxonomic group
- monophyleticFrom one ancestral lineage
- phylogenyEvolutionary relationships among organisms
- evolutionary treeDiagram of ancestral relationships
- common descentAll organisms share forebears
lineage · taxonomy · divergence · branch · evolution · cladogram · family tree · taxon · related · kinship · sibling · twin · counterpart · parallel · offshoot · split · node · tree
- taxonomygenus, species, taxon, kingdom, phylum
- phylogeneticscladogram, clade, phylogeny, phylogenetics, cladistics