How Good is your Taxonomic Grouping? 

Monophyletic describes a closely-related group of organisms that is formed from a single common ancestor and all of its descendants.  If it were missing any descendants, it would be considered incomplete and given the weaker description paraphyletic.  If it didn't include a common ancestor, the members wouldn't all be related and it would have to be called polyphyletic.

Copyright ©2007 Jason Hollinger
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Last changed on June 26, 2007