Supergroup (biology): Difference between revisions

Since the decade of 2000'sthe 2000s, the [[Eukaryote#Phylogeny|eukaryotic tree of life]] (abbreviated as eToL) has been divided into 5–8 major groupings called 'supergroups'. These groupings were established after the idea that only [[monophyletic]] groups should be accepted as ranks, as an alternative to the use of [[paraphyletic]] kingdom [[Protista]].<ref name="SimpsonRoger2004"/> In the early days of the eToL six traditional supergroups were considered: [[Amoebozoa]], [[Opisthokonta]], "[[Excavata]]", [[Archaeplastida]], "[[Chromalveolata]]" and [[Rhizaria]]. Since then, the eToL has been rearranged profoundly, and most of these groups were found as [[paraphyletic]] or lacked defining [[morphology (biology)|morphological]] characteristics that unite their members, which makes the 'supergroup' label more arbitrary.<ref name="NewToE"/>