A chronospecies is a species which changes physically, morphologically, genetically, and/or behaviorally over time on an evolutionary scale such that the originating species and the species it becomes could not be classified as the same species had they existed at the same point in time. Throughout this change, there is only one species in the lineage living at any point in time, as opposed to cases where one species branches off into many through divergent evolution. As opposed to paleospecies (see below), "chronospecies" is the general term for the elements of a sequential succession of species evolving into another, anywhere in time, for any length of time, with or without having extant descendants.