The story
Coined in a 1993 paper by D. H. Erwin and M. L. Droser, with reference to the prevalence of impersonators of the singer Elvis Presley.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Elvis taxon
Today it means: A taxon that has been misidentified as having re-emerged in the fossil record after a period of presumed extinction, but is not actually a descendant of the original taxon, instead having developed a similar morphology through convergent evolution. Full definition →