homoplasy

homoplasy The similarity of a particular character in two different, yet often related, groups of organisms that is not the result of common ancestry. Such a similarity may arise due to convergent evolution, parallel evolution, or an evolutionary reversal, and is therefore potentially misleading when examining shared characters in constructing phylogenetic trees (see cladistics). For example, wings in bats and birds are a convergent, and therefore homoplasic, character. Hence, all efforts are made to distinguish homoplasic characters from homologous derived characters (see apomorphy). Compare analogous; patristic.