Monophyletic Groups

A monophyletic group is any taxonomic rank which comprises of all taxa that share a common ancestor. In the art of phylogenetics, monophyletic groups are the ideal groups depicted in the phylogeny. One hopes that each clade, or each group studied on the phylogeny, is monophyletic, and not paraphyletic or polyphyletic. This means that in the best-case scenario, a clade is synonymous with the definition of a monophyletic group, and vice-versa. If a group is found to be paraphyletic or polyphyletic, often resulting from a lack of information and growing research, taxonomists will attempt to rework and recategorize the phylogenetic groups to create complete monophyletic groups and trees.