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12 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Sympleisiomorphy |
A ancestral character shared by the taxa underconsideration |
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Synapomorphy |
A character which is derived, and because it isshared by the taxa under consideration, is used to infer common ancestry(shared derived state). |
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Taxon |
Any named group of organisms, not necessarily aclade. |
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Taxonomy |
The science of naming and classifying organisms. |
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Polyphyletic |
Term applied to a group of organisms which doesnot include the most recent common ancestor of those organisms; the ancestordoes not possess the character shared by members of the group. |
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Plesiomorphy |
A primitive character state for the taxa underconsideration. |
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Phylogeny |
The evolutionary relationships among organisms;the patterns of lineage branching produced by the true evolutionary history ofthe organisms being considered. |
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Phylogenetics |
Field of biology that deals with therelationships between organisms. It includes the discovery of theserelationships, and the study of the causes behind this pattern. |
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Parsimony |
Refers to a rule used to choose among possiblecladograms, which states that the cladogram implying the least number ofchanges in character states is the best. |
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Monophyletic |
Term applied to a group of organisms whichincludes the most recent common ancestor of all of its members and all of thedescendants of that most recent common ancestor. A monophyletic group is calleda clade. |
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Homology |
Two structures are considered homologous whenthey are inherited from a common ancestor which possessed the structure. Thismay be difficult to determine when the structure has been modified throughdescent. |
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Evolution |
Darwin's definition: descent with modification.The term has been variously used and abused since Darwin to include everythingfrom the origin of man to the origin of life. |
