A group that consists of all the evolutionary descendants of a common ancestor is called
A) a grade.
B) a taxon.
C) a homology.
D) an ingroup.
E) a clade.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

A clade is a group that consists of all the evolutionary descendants of a common ancestor. The other options are not the correct term for this definition: A grade refers to a group that is defined by a certain level of morphological complexity, but not necessarily all descendants of a common ancestor; a taxon refers to any group of organisms, and does not necessarily imply a common ancestor; a homology is a shared characteristic due to a common ancestry, but does not refer to an entire group of organisms; an ingroup is a group of organisms being analyzed in a phylogenetic study, but does not necessarily imply all descendants of a common ancestor.

A Group That Consists of All the Evolutionary Descendants of a Common