Neuro Exam 4

Phenetics

method of classifying organisms based on overall similarity

Taxonomy

the science of classifying living organisms, visually in hierarchical in structure

Phylogenetics

the study of historic relatedness among groups of organisms

Phylogeny

the evolutionary relationships between a set of organisms, usually species

Systematics

the study of the diversity of organism characteristics especially how they relate to establishing a phylogeny

Primitive Character

character inherited with little or no change from remote ancestors

Derived character

character that has undergone recent change

Symplesiomorphic

primitive character shared by several species

Synaptomorphic

derived character shared by 2 or more species

Cladogram

A pictorial representation of the evolutionary relationships of organisms according to the principles of cladistic

Clade

A branch in a cladogram

Monophyletic Group

a group of organisms which shares a common ancestor and which includes the ancestor and all its descendants

Taxon

a grouping of organisms

Cladistics

method of classifying organisms based on shared derived characteristics