Contrast the following terms: monophyletic, paraphyletic, and polyphyletic. Provide one example for each. What will be an ideal response?


A monophyletic group includes an ancestral species and all its descendants. It is defined by
shared derived characteristics. For example, all mammals are believed to be descended from
a common ancestor that had mammary glands, three small bones in middle ear, and a
muscular diaphragm.
A paraphyletic group contains a common ancestor and some, but not all, of its descendents.
The class Reptilia is paraphyletic because it does not include all descendants of the most
recent common ancestor.
A polyphyletic group consists of several evolutionary lines that do not share a most recent
common ancestor. The domain Bacteria and the Domain Eukarya constitute a polyphyletic
group because they do not share the most recent common ancestor.

Biology & Microbiology

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