cenogenesis

noun

ce·​no·​genesis

variants or coenogenesis or less commonly caenogenesis

¦sēnə,

¦senə+

: introduction during development of adaptive characters or structures that are absent from the earlier phylogeny of a strain (as addition of the placenta to the common vertebrate pattern in mammalian evolution)

—opposed to palingenesis

Word History

Etymology

German zänogenesis, from zän- cen- + Latin genesis birth

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