What is the term for the evolutionary history of a species?

The term for the evolutionary history of a species is phylogeny. A species' phylogeny describes how it is related to ancestral and descendant lineages through time, usually as part of a larger evolutionary history. Scientists often represent these relationships with a phylogenetic tree, a branching diagram in which branches reflect lineages and shared ancestry.

Phylogeny is not the same as ontogeny. Ontogeny means the development of an individual organism, such as an embryo growing into an adult. Phylogenetics is the scientific study of evolutionary relationships, while a phylogeny is the history or inferred pattern of those relationships.

Modern phylogenies are built from evidence such as fossils, anatomy, embryology, and DNA or protein sequences. A branching point generally represents a common ancestor, although the exact timing and shape of a tree can remain uncertain. Cladistics is a method for grouping organisms by shared derived traits, and taxonomy is the broader practice of naming and classifying them.