noun
- a biologist who practices or specializes in phenetics, a method of biological classification based on overall similarity of observable characteristics rather than evolutionary history
Usage: technical; biology
Examples
- The pheneticist analyzed the morphological traits of the specimens to group them by similarity.
- Early pheneticists relied on numerical taxonomy to classify organisms objectively.
- As a pheneticist, she focused on measurable physical features rather than genetic relationships.
- The research team included both pheneticists and cladists with different classification philosophies.