intraorder
Intraorder is a term used in systematic biology to refer to the evolutionary relationships among organisms that belong to the same order. It denotes the internal structure of diversity within a single order, focusing on how lineages within that order are related and have diversified over time. Intraorder is not a formal taxonomic rank in most nomenclatural codes (such as the ICZN for animals or the ICN for plants). Instead, it is an informal or cladistic concept that scientists use to discuss subgroups, lineages, and clades that occur entirely within an order. Because orders themselves are subdivided by ranks like suborder, infraorder, superfamily, and family, the term intraorder helps describe relationships that do not map to a single formal rank.
Researchers study intraorder relationships using multiple data sources, including molecular phylogenetics, morphology, and paleontology. Analyses aim
The term is often encountered in scholarly articles that compare diversification within different orders, or that