phylogeny

noun phy·log·e·ny \ fī-ˈlä-jə-nē \

|Updated on: 3 Aug 2018

Definition of phylogeny

plural phylogenies

1 : the evolutionary history of a kind of organism

2 : the evolution of a genetically related group of organisms as distinguished from the development of the individual organism

3 : the history or course of the development of something (such as a word or custom)

See phylogeny defined for kids

Recent Examples of phylogeny from the Web

Creating a complete phylogeny of birds is likely to resolve this dispute, or at least offer new evidence.

— kat eschner, Smithsonian, "What We Can Learn From a New Bird Tree of Life," 21 Apr. 2018
Funded by the National Science Foundation, the project has the goal of creating a full tree of life, or phylogeny, for the world’s birds.

— kat eschner, Smithsonian, "What We Can Learn From a New Bird Tree of Life," 21 Apr. 2018
These phylogenies help researchers looking at the evolutionary histories of specific avian traits or the story of birds overall.

— elizabeth pennisi, Science | AAAS, "Bigger, better bird tree of life will soon fly into view," 16 Apr. 2018
The dinosaur family tree, or phylogeny, as scientists call it, underpins the major questions about how these creatures came to rule the Earth millions of years ago.

— eva botkin-kowacki, The Christian Science Monitor, "Is the dinosaur family tree becoming a dinosaur?," 3 Nov. 2017
For living animals, building phylogenies can be a bit less controversial, because the animals’ genomes are available.

— eva botkin-kowacki, The Christian Science Monitor, "Is the dinosaur family tree becoming a dinosaur?," 3 Nov. 2017
Earlier this year paleontologists Matthew Baron, David Norman, and Paul Barrett unveiled a new dinosaur phylogeny that offers very different view of who’s related to whom.

— brian switek, Scientific American Blog Network, "Shaking the Dinosaur Family Tree," 15 May 2017
The study describing Atractus cerberus, published on March 15 in ZooKeys, uses DNA from 30 Atractus species to build an ambitious phylogeny, or family tree, of the genus.

— michael greshko, National Geographic, "3 New Snakes Found, One Named for Underworld Monster," 24 Mar. 2017
Darwin knew that paleontologists had only just begun to probe the fossil record, and so outlining phylogenies or tracing evolutionary lines of descent was a risky maneuver since those findings would almost certainly have to be revised.

— brian switek, WIRED, "OpenLab Finalist: Giraffes – Necks for food, or necks for sex?," 7 Jan. 2011

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'phylogeny.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of phylogeny

International Scientific Vocabulary

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1869

in the meaning defined at sense 1

See Words from the same year

Other Biology Terms

autochthonous, fecund, homunculus, substrate

Medical Dictionary

phylogeny

noun phy·log·e·ny \ fi-ˈläj-ə-nē \

medical Definition of phylogeny

plural phylogenies

1 : the evolutionary history of a kind of organism

2 : the evolution of a genetically related group of organisms as distinguished from the development of the individual organism — called also phylogenesis; compare ontogeny