Definition of apomorphy
plural apomorphies
biological taxonomy
: a specialized trait or character that is unique to a group or species : a character state (such as the presence of feathers) not present in an ancestral form
- In this case, white flowers are a derived condition, an apomorphy, and red flowers are the ancestral condition.
- —James D. Mauseth, Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology, 2009
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apomorphic
play \¦a-pə-¦mȯr-fik\ or less commonly apomorph play \ˈa-pə-ˌmȯrf\ adjective-
- As far as possible, it is assumed that each apomorphic evolutionary event only occurred once in the history of each group of related taxa …
- —C. Barry Cox and Peter D. Moore, Biogeography: An Ecological and Evolutionary Approach, 2010
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- … such apomorph characters are believed to be found only among the descendants of the ancestor in which the character first occurred.
- —Ernst Mayr, The Growth of Biological Thought, 1982
