The phrase "a more derived" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing something that has been developed or evolved from a previous source or concept, often in a comparative context.
Example: "In this study, we will explore a more derived model that builds upon the original theory."
Alternatives: "a more advanced" or "a more evolved".
In other words, we now have something that is much more like a more derived feather than ever seen before and in a lineage very well separated from the theropods.
Several experiments were conducted to characterize the nature of thyroidal rhythmicity in a more derived perciform teleost, the red drum.
Superposition eyes, then, represent a more derived eye type that appears in three different crustacean groups the decapods, euphausiids, and mysids—suggesting at least two independent origins (Fig. 1).
Recent analyses place Dendrerpetontidae outside Edopoidea in a more derived position.
A consecutive narrowing down of this concept caused Kentrosaurus, until the 1980s to be seen as a typical "primitive" stegosaurian, to be placed in a more derived, higher, position in the stegosaur evolutionary tree.
Given this narrow-gauge stance, together with a more derived, arc-shaped manus impression, quadrupedal tracks at Arhab were likely made by nontitanosauriform neosauropods.
Appearance of the pachyostotic bulla may indicate a shift to a yet more derived degree of directional underwater hearing, a hypothesis that requires further investigation.
This speculation hence implies that endoparasitism would be plesiomorphic to Neodermata, a possibility at least consistent with the evidence presented here for a relatively more derived position of Monogenea within Neodermata (Cercomeromorpha).
The genera from the Southern Hemisphere (Merciera, Prismatocarpus, Roella, and Wahlenbergia) are in a much more derived position in the cpDNA tree.
Pachyostosis may indicate instead an even more derived level of underwater hearing than previously recognized but confirmation requires further functional studies.
Reconstructing auditory function from osteology, we would infer that the presence of a pachyostotic bulla (character 59, state 1) in †Indohyus, and all more highly nested cetaceamorphans (Figure 3A), potentially indicates an even more derived state of underwater hearing than that which developed in the common ancestor of Cetancodonta.
