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The term paraphyly, or paraphyletic, derives from the two Ancient Greek words παρά (pará), meaning "beside, near", and φῦλον (phûlon), meaning "genus, species", [2] [3] and refers to the situation in which one or several monophyletic subgroups of organisms (e.g., genera, species) are left apart from all other descendants of a unique common ancestor.
Fishes are a paraphyletic group and for this reason, the class Pisces seen in older reference works is no longer used in formal taxonomy.Traditional classification divides fish into three extant classes (Agnatha, Chondrichthyes, and Osteichthyes), and with extinct forms sometimes classified within those groups, sometimes as their own classes: [1]
Cladistic classification of Sarcopterygii is the classication of Sarcopterygii as a clade containing not only the lobe-finned fishes (coelacanths and lungfish) but also the tetrapods, which are closely related to lungfish. The taxon Sarcopterygii was traditionally classified as a paraphyletic group considered either a class or a subclass of ...
Chondrostei. Chondrostei is a group of non- neopterygian ray-finned fish. While the term originally referred to the paraphyletic grouping of all non-neopterygian ray-finned fish, it was redefined by Patterson in 1982 to be a clade comprising the Acipenseriformes (which includes sturgeon and paddlefish) and their extinct relatives. [1]
Polychaetes are segmented worms, generally less than 10 cm (4 in) in length, although ranging at the extremes from 1 mm (0.04 in) to 3 m (10 ft), in Eunice aphroditois. They can sometimes be brightly coloured, and may be iridescent or even luminescent. Each segment bears a pair of paddle-like and highly vascularized parapodia, which are used ...
Actinopterygii. Actinopterygii (/ ˌæktɪnɒptəˈrɪdʒiaɪ /; from actino- 'having rays' and Ancient Greek πτέρυξ (ptérux) 'wing, fins'), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish [ 2 ] that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. [ 3 ]
Gnathostomata is traditionally a infraphylum, broken into three top-level groupings: Chondrichthyes, or the cartilaginous fish; Placodermi, an extinct grade of armored fish; and Teleostomi, which includes the familiar classes of bony fish, birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Some classification systems have used the term Amphirhina.
Pteropoda (common name pteropods, from the Greek meaning "wing-foot") are specialized free-swimming pelagic sea snails and sea slugs, marine opisthobranch gastropods. Most live in the top 10 m of the ocean and are less than 1 cm long. The monophyly of Pteropoda is the subject of a lengthy debate; they have even been considered as paraphyletic ...