Traits that exist in a present organism, but did not exist in the that organism's ancestors.
In cladistics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive anatomical feature, known as a derived trait, that is unique to a given terminal group.  Derived trait. In phylogenetics, a derived trait is a trait that is present in an organism, but was absent in the last common ancestor of the group being considered. This may also refer to structures that are not present in an organism, but were present in its ancestors, i.e. traits that have undergone secondary loss. Here the lack of a structure is a derived trait. For example, among the tetrapods, having five fingers is the primitive trait-as their last common ancestor bore a five-digit hand. However, amongst the vertebrates, five fingers is a derived trait, as the last common ancestor to the vertebrates did not even bear fingers. Definition of SYNAPOMORPHY. : a character or trait that is shared by two or more taxonomic groups and is derived through evolution from a common ancestral form. ADVERTISEMENT. International Scientific Vocabulary syn- + apomorphy derived evolutionary trait or feature (from apo- + -morphy). First Known Use: 1965. : a character or trait that is shared by two or more taxonomic groups and is derived through evolution from a common ancestral form. ADVERTISEMENT Making the world better, one answer at a time. A derived character is a trait that arose in the most recent common ancestor of a particular lineage and was passed along to its descendants. Among a given group of organisms, the shared derived characters are generally the less common characters. Derived characters may be present in members of one group of the line, but not in the common ancestor. For example, in comparing fish and mammals, fish have scales and mammals have hair. So having hair is a derived character for mammals, as only the mammals have ancestors with hair. Derived trait. In phylogenetics, a derived trait is a trait that is present in an organism, but was absent in the last common ancestor of the group being considered. This may also refer to structures that are not present in an organism, but were present in its ancestors, i.e. traits that have undergone secondary loss Derived (evolution). From Conservapedia. In the study of evolutionary relationships, derived refers to traits that exist in a present organism, but did not exist in the that organism's ancestors. For example, early primates were small and had raccoon-like snouts. The opposite of derived is primitive, which refers to traits in modern organisms which existed in their ancestor group. Thus flight in modern birds would be considered primitive, as the earliest birds had flight, and flightlessness in modern birds would be considered a derived feature. Report Abuse. This is usually used in a sense of ancestral vs. derived traits. An ancestral trait or primitive one is a trait that was retained by a species from its ancestor. A derived trait is one that has evolved. Both of these terms must be used relative to a classification group. E.G. Among primates, the relatively shortened and straight spine of a gorilla is a derived trait (it was not present in the common ancestor of all primates).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autapomorphy http://www.definitions.net/definition/derived%20trait http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/synapomorphy http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_derived_character http://www.abbreviations.com/Derived%20trait http://www.conservapedia.com/Derived_(evolution) https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080202220146AAGuzsa
derived trait definition