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Definition of "phyletic" [phyletic]

  • Of or relating to the evolutionary descent and development of a species or group of organisms; phylogenetic. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "phyletic" in a sentence
  • "This is both a phyletic tree and a nested hierarchy."
  • "Caling the ongoing “evolutionary” history of Intelligent Design cretinism a version of “punctuated equilibria” does a grave disservice to the mendacious proponents of ID, and especially, to invertebrate paleobiologists Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould, whose 1972 paper in which they offered punctuated equilibrium as an alternative to phyletic gradualism still remains an important classic in the scientific literature of evolutionary biology."
  • "Remember that creationists were the original critics of phyletic gradualism although, alas, modern creationists tend to miss the fact phyletic gradualism has been dead for forty years, if it ever existed at all."