plesiomorphic

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English

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Etymology

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plesiomorph +‎ -ic

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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plesiomorphic (comparative more plesiomorphic, superlative most plesiomorphic)

  1. (cladistics) Sharing a character state with an ancestral clade; primitive.
    • 2000, Christine A. Nalepa, Claudio Bandi, “Paedomorphosis and Termite Evolution”, in Termites: Evolution, Sociality, Symbioses, Ecology, →ISBN, page 68:
      [T]he cockroach Polyphaga may represent a condition more plesiomorphic than in other Dictyoptera, but it could as well be paedomorphic, and therefore more derived than in other Dictyoptera [72].
  2. plesiomorphous

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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