plesiomorphic
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From plesiomorph + -ic or plesio- + -morphic.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (General American) IPA(key): /ˌplizioʊˈmɔɹfɪk/
- Hyphenation: ple‧sio‧mor‧phic
Adjective
[edit]plesiomorphic (comparative more plesiomorphic, superlative most plesiomorphic)
- (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].
- 2025 September 27, Julia Jacobo, “Million-year-old skull could rewrite timeline of human origin, researchers say”, in ABC News[1], archived from the original on 14 February 2026:
- "The cranium is clearly plesiomorphic in overall form, presenting primitive traits shared by earlier hominins," the authors wrote.
- Plesiomorphous.