polyphyletically

Updated: May 13, 2025

The most diverse questions and answers crop up; whether evolution has been brought about “monophyletically” or “polyphyletically,” i.e., through one or many genealogical trees; whether it has taken place in a continuous easy transition from one type to another, or by leaps and bounds; whether through a gradual transformation of all organs, each varying individually, or through correlated “kaleidoscopic” variations of many kinds throughout the whole system; whether it is essentially asymptotic, or whether organisms pass from “labile” phases of vital equilibrium by various halting-places to stable states, which are definitive, and are, so to speak, the blind alleys and terminal points of evolutionary possibilities, e.g., the extinct gigantic saurians, and perhaps also man.

Rudolf Otto - Naturalism And Religion