Supergroup (biology)

A supergroup, in evolutionary biology, is a large group of organisms that share one common ancestor and have important defining characteristics.

[2] In the early days of the eToL six traditional supergroups were considered: Amoebozoa, Opisthokonta, "Excavata", Archaeplastida, "Chromalveolata" and Rhizaria.

Since then, the eToL has been rearranged profoundly, and most of these groups were found as paraphyletic or lacked defining morphological characteristics that unite their members, which makes the 'supergroup' label more arbitrary.

[1] Currently, the addition of many lineages of newly discovered protists (such as Telonemia, Picozoa, Hemimastigophora, Rigifilida...) and the use of phylogenomic analyses have brought a new, more accurate supergroup model.

Haptista Provora Hemimastigophora Cryptista Archaeplastida Discoba Metamonada Ancyromonadida Malawimonadida CRuMs Amorphea The term 'supergroup' is used in phylogenetic studies of bacteria, in a smaller sense than within eukaryotes.