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Plesiomorphic vs Symplesiomorphy - What's the difference?

plesiomorphic | symplesiomorphy |

In cladistics terms the difference between plesiomorphic and symplesiomorphy

is that plesiomorphic is sharing a character state with an ancestral clade; primitive while symplesiomorphy is an ancestral trait shared by two or more taxa.

As an adjective plesiomorphic

is sharing a character state with an ancestral clade; primitive.

As a noun symplesiomorphy is

an ancestral trait shared by two or more taxa.

plesiomorphic

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (cladistics) Sharing a character state with an ancestral clade; primitive.
  • *2000 , Christine A. Nalepa and Claudio Bandi,"Paedomorphosis and Termite Evolution," in Termites: Evolution, Sociality, Symbioses, Ecology [http://books.google.com/books?id=Q_-KUDz2-sYC], ISBN 0792363612, 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].

    • Derived terms

    *plesiomorphically

    Synonyms

    *primitive, basal

    Related terms

    *plesiomorphy *apomorphic *paedomorphic

    symplesiomorphy

    English

    Noun

    (symplesiomorphies)
  • (cladistics) An ancestral trait shared by two or more taxa.

    • Related terms

    * symplesiomorphic