Classification and phylogeny

• classification - process of sorting things into groups
• Artificial Classification

  • based only on a few characteristics
  • does not reflect any evolutionary relationships
  • provides limited information
  • stable
• Natural Classification

  biological classification involves the detailed study of individuals in a species

  →as all members of the species are similar, we can consider them to be closely related

  • uses many characteristics
  • reflects many evolutionary relationships
  • may change with advancing knowledge

  if we know of another very similar species that is not endangered, we can carry out research on this second species to provide information that is also applicable to endangered species

  →may help to make conservation more successful
• Phylogeny

  study of the evolutionary relations between species

  →involves studying how closely different species are; we can say any two species living today have had a common ancestor at some time in the past when they started to evolve separately

  Using the evolutionary / phylogenic tree we can see certain evolutionary relationships hat indicate how closely related the species are