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An evolutionary grade is a group of species united by morphological or physiological traits, that has given rise to another group that has major differences from the ancestral group's condition, and is thus not considered part of the ancestral group, while still having enough similarities that we can group them under the same clade.
Evolutionary taxonomy, evolutionary systematics or Darwinian classification is a branch of biological classification that seeks to classify organisms using a combination of phylogenetic relationship (shared descent), progenitor-descendant relationship (serial descent), and degree of evolutionary change.
Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. [1] [2] It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more or less common within a population over successive generations. [3]
[1] [2] That happens when rapid evolution makes a new species appear so radically different from the ancestral group that it is not (initially) recognised as belonging to the parent phylogenetic group, which is left as an evolutionary grade. While the term is from bacteriology, parallel examples are found throughout the tree of life.
Evolutionary grade – Non-monophyletic grouping of organisms united by morphological or physiological characteristics Lineage (evolution) – Sequence of populations, organisms, cells, or genes that form a line of descent
With the modern evolutionary synthesis of the early 1940s, an essentially modern understanding of the evolution of the major groups was in place. As evolutionary taxonomy is based on Linnaean taxonomic ranks, the two terms are largely interchangeable in modern use. [60] The cladistic method has emerged since the 1960s. [55]
A phylogenetic tree, phylogeny or evolutionary tree is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or taxa during a specific time. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] In other words, it is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological species or other entities based upon ...
For specimens known only from fossils, the rigorous analysis of characters to determine evolutionary relationships between different groups of animals (clades) proved incredibly useful. As computer-based cladistics matured in the 1990s, paleontologists were among the first zoologists to broadly adopt the system. [ 3 ]