Phylogenetic nomenclature

Phylogenetic nomenclature names biological groups by their evolutionary ancestry and membership, rather than assigning names through a hierarchy of taxonomic ranks.

Clade: A group consisting of an ancestor and all its descendants. Phylogenetic names commonly designate clades as branches of evolutionary history.
Node-based definition: A phylogenetic definition naming the least inclusive clade containing specified descendant taxa. It identifies a group through a shared ancestor and its descendants.
Linnaean taxonomy: A hierarchical system that classifies organisms into named ranks such as species, genus, and family. Its rank-based framework is the principal alternative to naming groups by ancestry alone.
Willi Hennig: German entomologist whose work established cladistics as a method for reconstructing evolutionary relationships. His approach to evolutionary groups supplied an intellectual foundation for clade-based names.
Phylogeny: The evolutionary history and relationships of organisms or other biological entities. Ancestry-based names depend on hypotheses about evolutionary relationships.
Stem-based definition: A phylogenetic definition naming organisms more closely related to one specified taxon than another. It draws a clade’s boundary by comparing ancestry with an external reference.
International Code of Zoological Nomenclature: The rule set governing the formation and use of scientific names for animals. It regulates zoological names through a rank-based tradition rather than clade definitions.
Cladistics: A method of classifying organisms by shared derived characters and common ancestry. Its emphasis on monophyletic groups motivated alternatives to rank-based naming.
Phylogenetic tree: A branching diagram representing hypothesized evolutionary relationships among organisms or other entities. Its branches provide the ancestry relationships that phylogenetic definitions use.
Apomorphy-based definition: A phylogenetic definition naming the clade originating with the first ancestor to possess a specified derived character. It anchors group membership to the origin of an evolutionary novelty.

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