English

Noun

phenetics ‎(uncountable)

1. (systematics) A form of numerical systematics in which organisms are grouped based upon the total or relative number of shared characteristics.
   • 1992, Alec L. Panchen, Classification, Evolution, and the Nature of Biology, page 132,

     We have seen in Chapter 6 and the previous chapters that dissatisfaction with traditional taxonomy gave rise, after the Second World War, to two distinct attempts at a remedy - phenetics and cladistics.

   • 2000, F.G. Priest, Michael Goodfellow, Preface, Applied Microbial Systematics, page xi,

     Microbial systematics has enjoyed two major advances in the latter half of this century: the introductions of numerical phenetics and molecular techniques for direct comparisons of organismal genomes. Numerical phenetics (taxonomy) was very influential during the 1960s and 70s in providing the first objective approach to bacterial classification.

   • 2001, Jody Hey, Genes, Categories, and Species: The Evolutionary and Cognitive Cause of the Species Problem, page 147,

     One of the most famous and fully developed arguments along these lines, was a justification for phenetics, a school of systematic thought that proposed mathematical methods for grouping organisms based on measurements of similarity {Sokal and Sneath 1963).

Synonyms

• (form of numerical systematics): taximetrics, taxometrics

Related terms

• pheneticism
• pheneticist

See also

• cladistics