Classification and Phylogeny

• what is phylogeny?

  evolutionary relationships between organisms
• what is phylogenetics?

  the study of the evolutionary history of groups of organisms
• what are the features of a phylogenetic tree?

  • branched diagram
  • branches will end with a species
  • bottom of tree will be oldest known ancestor of future species
  • not to scale, but could be drawn mathematically
  • closer the branches (from the same point) the more closely related they are
  • nodes represent shared ancestors and lines connect descendants to ancestor
• what are the advantages of phylogenetic classification over the Linnaean system?

  • Linnaean is not as reliable as based off similar names or looks, not by common ancestors (the true relationships)
• what does monophyletic mean?

  belonging to the same phylogenetic group