Phylogeny

• Phylogeny describes the evolutionary relationship between organisms. This allows a hierarchal order of taxonomic ranks to be established.
• The phylogenetic relationships between different species are represented as a phylogenetic tree. The oldest species exist at the base of the tree, whilst the newest species is represented by the ends of the branches.
• In a phylogenetic tree, the closer the branches are, the closer the evolutionary relationship is between those two organisms.