What is "phylogenesis"

Phylogenesis \Phy`lo*gen"e*sis\, Phylogeny \Phy*log"e*ny\, n. [Gr. ? tribe + E. genesis, or root of Gr. gi`gnesqai to be born.] The history of genealogical development; the race history of an animal or vegetable type; the historic exolution of the phylon or tribe, in distinction from ontogeny, or the development of the individual organism, and from biogenesis, or life development generally.

1870, coined in German by Haeckel, from phylo- + -genesis "birth, origin, creation."

n. Evolutionary development of a species.

1. n. (biology) the sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms [syn: evolution, phylogeny]

2. [also: phylogeneses (pl)]

Phylogenesis (from Greek φῦλον phylon "tribe" + γένεσις genesis "origin") is the biological process by which a taxon (of any rank) appears. The science that studies these processes is called phylogenetics.

These terms may be confused with the term phylogenetics, the application of molecular - analytical methods (i.e. molecular biology and genomics), in the explanation of phylogeny and its research.

Phylogenetic relationships are discovered through phylogenetic inference methods that evaluate observed heritable traits, such as DNA sequences or overall morpho- anatomical, ethological, and other characteristics.

Phylogenesis ( 1999) is a science fiction novel written by Alan Dean Foster. It is the first novel in Foster's Founding of the Commonwealth Trilogy.

In Phylogenesis Foster begins to further expand the history of the founding of the Humanx Commonwealth which began in his 1982 novel Nor Crystal Tears. While Nor Crystal Tears was a first contact novel between human and thranx, and set the foundation for the eventual Humanx Commonwealth, starting with'' Phylogenesis'', Foster's trilogy set out to detail the events that led to the union between the two races.