Polyphyletic groups

Algae ( , ; : alga ) are any of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic organisms. It excludes the land plants (embryophytes). Such organisms range from microscopic unicellular microalgae (including cyanobacteria and phytoplankton) to seaweeds, multicellular macroalgae which may grow up to in length. Most algae are aquatic (especially marine), and some form cohesive colonies. Freshwater algae include Charophyta such as the filamentous Spirogyra and the grasslike stoneworts. Most algae are planktons carried passively by water, although some macroalgae have holdfasts for anchorage.

thumb|Lumbricus terrestris, an earthworm thumb|White tentacles of Loimia medusa, a spaghetti worm

thumb|A tree covered with leafy foliose lichens and shrubby fruticose lichens

A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and South America and consist of seven species. A particular characteristic of many vultures is a bald, unfeathered head. This bare skin is thought to keep the head clean when feeding, and also plays an important role in thermoregulation.

thumb|A slug on a wall in Kanagawa Prefecture|Kanagawa, [[Japan.]]

thumb|European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus)

thumb|upright|Ascophyllum nodosum exposed to the sun in [[Nova Scotia, Canada|alt=Photo of seaweed with small swollen areas at the end of each frond]] thumb|Dead man's fingers (Codium fragile) off the [[Massachusetts coast in the United States|alt=Photo of detached seaweed frond lying on sand]] right|thumb|The top of a kelp forest in [[Otago, New Zealand|alt=Photo of seaweed with the tip floating at the surface]] Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of Rhodophyta (red), Phaeophyta (brown) and Chlorophyt

informal group of beetles

Common name concerning different taxa once grouped in a single superfamily but now split into several ones

macroscopic, parasitic worm

eukaryotic organisms with a life cycle that includes a free-living single-celled stage and the formation of spores

thumb|Various ostracoderms of the class Osteostraci ('bony-shields') thumb|Cardipeltis bryanti, a lower Devonian ostracoderm from the [[Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. Ventral (underside) exposed.|upright]] Ostracodermi () or ostracoderms is an informal group of vertebrate animals that include all armored jawless fish of the Paleozoic Era. The term does not often appear in classifications today because it is paraphyletic (excluding jawed fishes and possibly the cyclostomes if anaspids are closer to them) and thus does not correspond to one evolutionary lineage. However, the term is still used as

Scombroidei or Scombrales is a suborder or infraorder of the order Scombriformes or suborder Scombroidei. The suborder or infraorder includes the tunas, mackerel and snake-mackerels. Regular scombrids are observed to have large heads, eyes, and mouths. In most cases, the second dorsal fin will develop before the development of the first.

Trachiniformes is an order of percomorph bony fish, whose contents are traditionally placed in suborder Trachinoidei of Perciformes.

Lepospondyli is a diverse grouping of early tetrapods. With the exception of one late-surviving lepospondyl from the Late Permian of Morocco (Diplocaulus minimus), lepospondyls lived from the Visean stage of the Early Carboniferous to the Early Permian and were geographically restricted to what is now Europe and North America. Five major groups of lepospondyls are known: Adelospondyli; Aïstopoda; Lysorophia; Microsauria; and Nectridea. Lepospondyls have a diverse range of body forms and include species with newt-like, eel- or snake-like, and lizard-like forms. Various species were aquatic, sem

thumb|Coxsackie B4 virus particles

__NOTOC__ thumb|right|A euryapsid skull. Euryapsida is a polyphyletic (unnatural, as the various members are not closely related) group of sauropsids that are distinguished by a single temporal fenestra, an opening behind the orbit, under which the post-orbital and squamosal bones articulate. They are different from Synapsida, which also have a single opening behind the orbit, by the placement of the fenestra. In synapsids, this opening is below the articulation of the post-orbital and squamosal bones. It is now commonly believed that euryapsids (particularly sauropterygians) are in fact diaps

Parareptilia ("near-reptiles") is an extinct subclass of basal sauropsids ("reptiles"). Traditionally considered the sister taxon to Eureptilia (the group that likely contains all living reptiles and birds), its validity as a monophyletic clade has been disputed by modern cladistic analyses.

REDIRECT Sauropsida#Subdivisions Category:Reptile taxonomy Category:Tetrapod unranked clades Category:Extant Pennsylvanian first appearances Category:Taxa named by Everett C. Olson Category:Polyphyletic groups

The phylum Sarcomastigophora belongs to the Protista or protoctista kingdom and it includes many unicellular or colonial, autotrophic, or heterotrophic organisms. It is characterized by flagella, pseudopodia, or both.

poorly defined taxon with an heterogeneous content

Ratites () are a polyphyletic group consisting of all birds within the infraclass Palaeognathae that lack keels and cannot fly. They are mostly large, long-necked, and long-legged, the exception being the kiwi, which is also the only nocturnal extant ratite.

thumb|left|Stomiidae ([[Stomiiformes), from top to bottom:Northern Stoplight Loosejaw (Malacosteus niger),Eustomias braueri,Bathophilus vaillanti,Leptostomias gladiator,Rhadinesthes decimus,Photostomias guernei and its mouth]]

thumb|The true limpet species [[Patella vulgata on a rock surface in Wales]] thumb|Underside of a Patella vulgata specimen

An endotherm (from Greek endon "within" and thermē "heat") is an organism that maintains its body at a metabolically favorable temperature, largely by the use of heat released by its internal bodily functions instead of relying almost purely on ambient heat. Such internally generated heat is mainly an incidental product of the animal's routine metabolism, but under conditions of excessive cold or low activity an endotherm might apply special mechanisms adapted specifically to heat production. Examples include special-function muscular exertion such as shivering, and uncoupled oxidative metabol

thumb|upright=1.35|Cancer pagurus, the edible or brown crab ([[Brachyura)]] Crabs are decapod crustaceans, either the Brachyura (the "true crabs") or various groups within the closely related Anomura (hermit crabs and allies), characterised by having a heavily armoured shell, their tail segments concealed under the body, the ability to run sideways, and the habit of hiding in rocky crevices. They do not form a single natural group or clade, but have convergently evolved multiple times from the ancestral decapod body plan through carcinisation, the process of creating this set of characteristic

Archaeohyracidae is an extinct family of notoungulate mammals known from the Paleocene through the Oligocene of South America. First named in 1897, it is now thought to be paraphyletic, rather than a genuine group of closely related animals with a single, unique, ancestor.

"Dromasaurs" are an artificial grouping of small anomodont therapsids from the Middle and Late Permian of South Africa. They represent either a paraphyletic grade or a polyphyletic grouping of small non-dicynodont basal anomodonts rather than a clade, and as such are considered an invalid group today. "Dromasaurs" were historically united by their superficially similar appearances that were unlike other known anomodonts. They are all small in size with slender limbs and long tails, and have short skulls with very large eye sockets. "Dromasauria" (sometimes also known as "Dromasauroidea") tradi

Avicephala ("bird heads") is a potentially polyphyletic grouping of extinct diapsid reptiles that lived during the Late Permian and Triassic periods characterised by superficially bird-like skulls and arboreal lifestyles. As a clade, Avicephala is defined as including the gliding weigeltisaurids and the arboreal drepanosaurs to the exclusion of other major diapsid groups. This relationship is not recovered in the majority of phylogenetic analyses of early diapsids and so Avicephala is typically regarded as an artificial or unnatural grouping. However, the clade was recovered again in 2021 foll

The Thermoanaerobacterales is a polyphyletic order of bacteria placed within the polyphyletic class Clostridia, and encompassing four families: the Thermoanaerobacteraceae, the Thermodesulfobiaceae, the Thermoanaerobacterales Family III. Incertae Sedis, and the Thermoanaerobacterales Family IV. Incertae Sedis, and various unplaced genera.

mollusc

common name