Clade
Clade
Clade (/kleɪd/), from the Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos), meaning "branch", is a term used in biology to refer to a group of organisms that consists of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants. This represents a single "branch" on the "tree of life".
Etymology
The term "clade" was coined in 1957 by the British biologist Julian Huxley, from the Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos), which means "branch". The concept has been central to evolutionary biology and phylogenetics.
Definition
In biology, a clade is a group of organisms that consists of a single common ancestor and all its lineal descendants. Clades are nested within one another, they represent a hierarchical pattern of relationships, akin to a family tree. The common ancestor may be an individual, a population, a species (extinct or extant), and so on right up to a kingdom or a domain.
Related Terms
- Phylogenetics: The study of the evolutionary history and relationships among individuals or groups of organisms.
- Monophyletic: A group of organisms that forms a clade.
- Paraphyletic: A group of organisms that shares a common ancestor although the group does not include all the descendants of that common ancestor.
- Polyphyletic: A group of organisms derived from more than one common evolutionary ancestor or ancestral group and therefore not suitable to be placed in the same taxon.
- Taxonomy (biology): The science of defining and naming groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics.
External links
- Medical encyclopedia article on Clade
- Wikipedia's article - Clade
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