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cladogenesis

  (klăd'ə-jĕn'ĭ-sĭs) pronunciation
n.

The evolutionary change and diversification resulting from the branching off of new taxa from common ancestral lineages.

[Greek klados, branch + –GENESIS.]

cladogenetic clad'o·ge·net'ic (-jə-nĕt'ĭk) adj.
cladogenetically clad'o·ge·net'i·cal·ly adv.
 
 
Wikipedia: cladogenesis

Cladogenesis is an evolutionary splitting event in which each branch and its smaller branches forms a "clade", an evolutionary mechanism and a process of adaptive evolution that leads to the development of a greater variety of sister organisms. This event usually occurs when a few organisms end up in new, often distant areas or when environmental changes cause several extinctions, opening up ecological niches for the survivors. A great example of cladogenesis today is the Hawaiian archipelago, to which stray organisms traveled across the ocean via ocean currents and winds. Most of the species on the islands are not found anywhere else on Earth due to evolutionary divergence.

Cladogenesis is often contrasted with anagenesis, where gradual changes in an ancestral species lead to its eventual "replacement" by a novel form (i.e., there is no "splitting" of the phylogenetic tree).


 
 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cladogenesis" Read more

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