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Updated: Oct 26, 2025

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin
Published on: August 14, 2018
Exploratory Activities for Understanding Evolutionary Relationships Depicted by Phylogenetic Trees: United but
Erin L McCULLOUGH1, Lauren Verdeflor2, Alaina Weinsztok3
1Postdoctoral Researcher in the Center for Reproductive Evolution (CRE), Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244.
Abstract:
Evolution explains both the unity and the diversity of all organisms, and developing students' ability to represent and communicate evolutionary relationships is an important component of a complete biology education. We present a series of student-centered, exploratory activities to help students develop their tree-thinking skills. In these activities, students use complementary phenotypic and molecular data to explore how to build phylogenetic trees and interpret the evolutionary relationships they represent. This learning module is designed to engage students in the process of science, provide them with active learning experiences using online bioinformatics tools, and foster their appreciation for the evolutionary connections across the tree of life.
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