Paraphyletic- Definition, Group, Classification, Examples

Paraphyletic is derived from the ancient greek words where para means ‘beside or near’ and phylon means genus or species. In phylogenetic studies of biological classification, the paraphyletic term is used to group together on common grounds. In a simple definition, we can state that paraphyletic is a group formed of a collection of organisms which includes the recent common ancestor with most of its descendant organisms. A paraphyletic taxon doesn’t include all descendants of the common ancestor except a few. A group is considered to be paraphyletic with regard to the excluded groups.