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