Is there a term for the group of individual organisms whose matrilineally descended female ancestors all share a common ancestor?

Question

A group of individual organisms that are all descended from a common ancestor is a clade. Is there a term for a group of individuals whose matrilineally descended ancestors (mothers, maternal grandmothers, maternal grandmothers' mothers, etc.) are all descended from a common ancestor?

Remi.b · Answer 1 · 2018-03-10T00:20:25.680

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I don't think there is a word for that.

However, you can refer to this specific DNA sequence as being exclusively maternally inherited (such as mtDNA for example; see also mtEve). For this sequence, the classical vocabulary from the field of phylogenetics and population genetics apply nicely.

edited Mar 10 '18 at 00:20

answered Feb 20 '18 at 23:04

Remi.b

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score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 21 '18 at 00:55

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I'm not aware of any one-word term for this. The term "common mitochondrial ancestor" is often used to refer to a shared female ancestor of a genetically related group. If you want to specify female descendants only, perhaps you could say "females sharing a common mitochondrial ancestor". I think that's about the shortest way to say it.

answered Feb 21 '18 at 00:55

Beth R.

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Thanks for this. I'm not specifying only females at the end of the chains, but every link above every group member must be female until you get to a female who is a common ancestor. So "all individuals who share a mitochrondrial ancestor" does the job nicely. – Feb 22 '18 at 14:47

Is there a term for the group of individual organisms whose matrilineally descended female ancestors all share a common ancestor?

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