Paraphyly

Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic with respect to the excluded subgroups. In contrast, a monophyletic grouping (a clade) includes a common ancestor and all of its descendants.

The terms are commonly used in phylogenetics (a subfield of biology) and in the tree model of historical linguistics. Paraphyletic groups are identified by a combination of synapomorphies and symplesiomorphies. If many subgroups are missing from the named group, it is said to be polyparaphyletic.

The term received currency during the debates of the 1960s and 1970s accompanying the rise of cladistics, having been coined by zoologist Willi Hennig to apply to well-known taxa like Reptilia (reptiles), which is paraphyletic with respect to birds. Reptilia contains the last common ancestor of reptiles and all descendants of that ancestor except for birds. Other commonly recognized paraphyletic groups include fish,^[1] monkeys,^[2] and lizards.^[3]

^ Greene, Harry W. (1 January 1998). "We are primates and we are fish: Teaching monophyletic organismal biology". Integrative Biology. 1 (3): 108–111. doi:10.1002/(sici)1520-6602(1998)1:3<108::aid-inbi5>3.0.co;2-t. ISSN 1520-6602.
^ Holtz, Thomas R. "The fossil record: the scatterlings of Africa: the origins of humanity". University of Maryland. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
^ Reeder, Tod W.; Townsend, Ted M.; Mulcahy, Daniel G.; Noonan, Brice P.; Wood, Perry L.; Sites, Jack W.; Wiens, John J. (2015). "Integrated Analyses Resolve Conflicts over Squamate Reptile Phylogeny and Reveal Unexpected Placements for Fossil Taxa". PLOS ONE. 10 (3): e0118199. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1018199R. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118199. PMC 4372529. PMID 25803280.

[1] Greene, Harry W. (1 January 1998). "We are primates and we are fish: Teaching monophyletic organismal biology". Integrative Biology. 1 (3): 108–111. doi:10.1002/(sici)1520-6602(1998)1:3<108::aid-inbi5>3.0.co;2-t. ISSN 1520-6602.

[2] Holtz, Thomas R. "The fossil record: the scatterlings of Africa: the origins of humanity". University of Maryland. Retrieved 6 February 2019.

[3] Reeder, Tod W.; Townsend, Ted M.; Mulcahy, Daniel G.; Noonan, Brice P.; Wood, Perry L.; Sites, Jack W.; Wiens, John J. (2015). "Integrated Analyses Resolve Conflicts over Squamate Reptile Phylogeny and Reveal Unexpected Placements for Fossil Taxa". PLOS ONE. 10 (3): e0118199. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1018199R. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0118199. PMC 4372529. PMID 25803280.

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