How to Use phylogenetic in a Sentence

phylogenetic

adjective
  • The team used the phylogenetic trees to estimate how long ago each branch of the tree split off from the others.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 12 Apr. 2018
  • But non-primate species clustered on other branches of the phylogenetic tree did well too.
    — Max G. Levy, Wired, 25 Jan. 2022
  • Using these little changes, researchers can draw up phylogenetic trees, much like family trees.
    — Kai Kupferschmidt, Science | AAAS, 9 Mar. 2020
  • Microbiologists use this record, known as the phylogenetic tree, to determine how the virus has evolved.
    — Peter Fimrite, SFChronicle.com, 18 May 2020
  • As more mosasaur fossils are discovered and as our knowledge of these creatures expands, the team expects Jorgie’s place in the phylogenetic tree may shift.
    — Jeanne Timmons, Ars Technica, 30 Oct. 2023
  • Habitat losses had led to entire branches of the tree of life being pruned away — meaning phylogenetic diversity took a major hit.
    — Anna Funk, Discover Magazine, 18 Jan. 2019
  • Using these phylogenetic principles, some researchers have dated many common words as far back as 9000 years ago.
    — Elizabeth Norton, WIRED, 7 May 2013
  • The scientists sank their teeth into some math modeling and phylogenetic bracketing.
    — Daisy Hernandez, Popular Mechanics, 8 Sep. 2020
  • The team pieced together what’s known as a phylogenetic tree showing how different human species may have diverged from one another over the past 1 million years.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN Money, 25 Sep. 2025
  • This deep freeze helps make the phylogenetic reconstruction possible.
    — John Drake, Forbes.com, 4 July 2026
  • The findings, the release said, make important amendments to the early phylogenetic tree and the understanding of how life developed.
    — Natalie Neysa Alund, USA TODAY, 18 Aug. 2022
  • Ballesteros and others have been sequencing horseshoe crabs for some time, allowing for the creation of what's known as a phylogenetic dataset, a fancy way of saying a family tree.
    — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 28 Feb. 2019
  • The researchers employed phylogenetic analysis to trace back the genetic history of the spiders and establish a rough family tree for them.
    — Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 8 Mar. 2018
  • By comparing this genetic information to more recent samples, the team pieced together a phylogenetic tree that traces the history of the virus over the past few centuries.
    — Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 9 Dec. 2016
  • Dr Barrios and her collaborators used these data to construct a phylogenetic tree, or a family genetics tree.
    — Grrlscientist, Forbes, 30 Apr. 2022
  • Through phylogenetic research, the scientists traced the mummies' cheese microorganisms as being most closely related to the Tibetan strain.
    — New Atlas, 25 Sep. 2024
  • Through phylogenetic analysis — evaluating the evolutionary pathways of how new species take shape — the scientists could then determine how such changes might be linked to increases in body size.
    — Mindy Weisberger, CNN, 11 May 2023
  • But, Neanderthals are far closer to modern humans, as would be likely expected from the phylogenetic relationship.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 6 Nov. 2011
  • Any phylogenetic tree is a hypothesis, subject to testing and change with additional analysis and discovery.
    — Brian Switek, Scientific American Blog Network, 15 May 2017
  • Through phylogenetic analysis, an international team of scientists found that kissing was likely present in the ancestor of all apes – which lived 21 million years ago.
    — Emily Kwong, NPR, 28 Nov. 2025
  • The team then ran a phylogenetic analysis, which allows scientists to infer information about traits in extinct species based on behavioral data from living animals.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN Money, 19 Nov. 2025
  • The microbes found aboard the ISS encompassed only about 6 percent of the major clades on the bacterial phylogenetic tree.
    — Lauren Leffer, Popular Science, 27 Feb. 2025
  • These were then sequenced and analyzed in Naylor’s lab, and compared to create a phylogenetic tree, a genetic map of the walking shark genus, Hemiscyllium.
    — National Geographic, 23 Jan. 2020
  • By comparing slight differences in the number and height of spectral peaks, a computer could correctly slot eggshell samples from more than a dozen dinosaurs, including early birds, onto a phylogenetic tree.
    — Gretchen Vogel, Science | AAAS, 8 Oct. 2019
  • The sequences featured in the phylogenetic tree in Sifford’s presentation would have been consensus sequences, Peacock said.
    — Helen Branswell, STAT, 2 May 2024
  • Plots showing the diversity of both the phylogenetic tree and tooth shapes show two distinct drops, around 34 million and 31 million years ago, reflecting these back-to-back disasters.
    — Max G. Levy, Wired, 2 Nov. 2021
  • Since then scientists have not been able to determine with certainty whether Tully’s Monster had something like a backbone or where the creature fits on the phylogenetic family tree.
    — Jack Tamisiea, Scientific American, 19 Apr. 2023
  • Similar to a family tree, a phylogenetic tree is a diagram that uses lines to show the evolutionary relationships between species in relation to a common ancestor.
    — William A. Haseltine, Forbes, 3 Jan. 2022
  • Samples were stored at very low temperatures, returned to Earth, and subjected to genomic, metabolic, and phylogenetic analysis.
    — Jasmine Laws, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 May 2025
  • The search for the components of language in nonhuman animals now extends to the far reaches of our phylogenetic tree, encompassing creatures that may communicate in radically unfamiliar ways.
    — Sonia Shah, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'phylogenetic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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