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Phylogenetic Trees

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Phylogenetic trees come in many forms. It matters in which sequence the organisms are arranged from the bottom to the top of the tree, but the branches can rotate at their nodes without altering the information. The lines connecting individual nodes can be straight, angled, or even curved.

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Phylogeny

Phylogeny is concerned with the evolutionary diversification of organisms or groups of organisms. A group of organisms with a name is called a taxon (singular). Taxa (plural) can span different levels of the evolutionary hierarchy. For instance, the group containing all birds is a taxon (comprising the class Aves), and the group of all species of daisies (the genus Bellis) is a taxon. Phylogenies can likewise include just one genus (i.e., depict species relationships) or span an entire kingdom.

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The “tree of life” describes the evolution of life and the evolutionary relationships between organisms. The root of the tree is the common ancestor to all life on Earth. All other species radiate from this point, much like the branches of a tree. The numerous tips of these branches on the tree of life represent every living, or extant, species. Extinct species, which are species that no longer exist, can be found towards the center of the tree. Currently, these organisms, both...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 14, 2025

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin

Using Phylogenetic Analysis to Investigate Eukaryotic Gene Origin

Published on: August 14, 2018

What is a cladogram and what is not?

Andrew V Z Brower¹

¹Evolution and Ecology Group, Department of Biology, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, 37132, USA.

Cladistics : the International Journal of the Willi Hennig Society

|November 6, 2021

Summary

The term "cladogram" traditionally represents a hypothesis of evolutionary relationships based on shared derived traits (synapomorphies). Misuse of "cladogram" as a general "dendrogram" overlooks its specific scientific meaning.

Area of Science:

Systematics
Evolutionary Biology
Phylogenetic Analysis

Background:

A cladogram is a graphical representation of evolutionary relationships.
It is traditionally based solely on synapomorphies (shared derived characteristics).

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