phylogenetic tree

English

Noun

phylogenetic tree (plural phylogenetic trees)

  1. (biology) A branching diagram illustrating the potential evolutionary relationships among biological organisms or other entities in which the tree-maker hypothesizes share a common ancestor.
    • 2011, Jacques Pepin, “The Source”, in The Origins of AIDS, 1st edition, →ISBN, page 22:
      However, phylogenetic trees describe the relatedness between living organisms (and their classification) rather than ancestry. They measure the genetic distance between organisms, and identify the nearest relatives.

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