Definition of "monophyletic" []

• Of or concerning a single taxon of animals. (adjective)
• Relating to, descended from, or derived from one stock or source. (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.

• "The false theory of evolution is called the monophyletic, which teaches that all species of plants and animals including man, developed from one cell or germ which came by creation or spontaneous generation."
• "Are we not compelled to adopt what is called the monophyletic hypothesis, that is, that our line of descent started from one pair, male and female, somewhere in the vast stretch of geologic or biologic time, and to reason that, had that pair been out of the race, we should not have appeared?"
• "Hennig's idea that groups of organisms, or taxa, should be recognized and formally named only in cases where they are evolutionarily real entities, that is "monophyletic", at first was controversial."