paraphyletic -- Term applied to a group of organisms which includes the most recent common ancestor of all of its members, but not all of the descendants of that most recent common ancestor. More?
Paraphyletic Group Polyphyletic Group Groups that do not include all the descendants of the most recent common ancestor are said to be paraphyletic.
paraphyletic groups Groups that do not include all descendants of a common ancestor.
Monophyletic, paraphyletic, and polyphyletic trees Taxonomists following cladistic analysis place taxa into clades based on the derived character states that the taxa share. For example, a wing is a character.
Any dividing line is artificial, and creates both a monophyletic section above and a paraphyletic section below.
What I grew up referring to as the green algae is not a real taxonomic group: it is a paraphyletic group in need to separation.
See also: Organ, Class, Taxon, Biology, Plant
 
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