Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Paraphyletic

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

  • 83 Accesses

Etymology

From the Greek words para, meaning “near,” and phyletic, meaning “tribe”

Synonyms

Paraphyly

Definition

A group of organisms that includes the most recent common ancestor and some – but not all – of its descendants.

Taxonomic groups (treated here only as groups) can be classified according to the kinship between the taxa that compose them, which is the main goal of phylogenetic systematics. In the phylogenetic systematics context, a kinship relationship between taxa is established by the presence of a common ancestor exclusive of the group. For example, considering the Mammalia taxon, all species included in Mammalia must be derived from an exclusive ancestor. In this case, all mammal species and their exclusive ancestor form a monophyleticgroup. Being so, the members of this group necessarily share exclusive features, called synapomorphies, such as the presence of hair, mammary glands, and others. However, it is common to find in the literature historical groups defined not...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bernardi, N. (1981). Phylogenetic relationships, monophyletic group and related concepts. Revista Brasileira de Entomologia, 25(4), 323–326.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hennig, W. (1966). Phylogenetic systematics. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, G. (1971). Paraphyly and polyphyly: Redefinition. Systematic Zoology, 20(4), 471–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Platnick, N. I. (1977). Paraphyletic and polyphyletic groups. Systematic Zoology, 26(4), 195–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wheelis, M. L., Kandler, O., & Woese, C. R. (1992). On the nature of global classification. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 89(7), 2930–2934.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Fauna e Unidades de Conservação, Departamento de Engenharia Florestal, Faculdade de Tecnologia, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Brazil

    Nathalie Citeli

  2. Laboratório de Anatomia Comparada de Vertebrados, Departamento de Ciências Fisiológicas, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Brazil

    Nathalie Citeli & Julia Klaczko

  3. Laboratório de Anfíbios e Répteis, Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Andressa M. Bezerra

  4. Laboratório de Comportamento Animal, Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Brazil

    Mariana de-Carvalho

Authors
  1. Nathalie Citeli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Andressa M. Bezerra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Mariana de-Carvalho
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Julia Klaczko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Animal Behavior Core, Department of Comparative Medicine, The University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, USA

    Mystera M. Samuelson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Citeli, N., Bezerra, A.M., de-Carvalho, M., Klaczko, J. (2021). Paraphyletic. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1194-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1194-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation