Casual Use
"Form taxon" can more casually be used to describe a wastebasket taxon: either a taxon that is not a natural (monophyletic) group but united by shared plesiomorphies, or a presumably artificial group of organisms whose true relationships are not known, being obscured by ecomorphological similarity. Well-known form taxa of this kind include "ducks", "fish", "reptiles" and "worms".
Read more about this topic: Form Classification
Famous quotes containing the word casual:
“O Sorrow, wilt Thou live with me
No casual mistress, but a wife.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, are then most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise. Protection from casual embarrassments, however, may sometimes be seasonably interposed.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)