What is phylogenetics?

1 Answer
Feb 1, 2017

Phylogenetics is the study of the evolutionary history and relationship among individuals or group of organisms.

Explanation:

These relationships are discoverd through phylogenetic inference methods that evaluate observed heritable traits. The result of these analyses is a phylogenetic tree - a diagrammatic hypothesis about the history of the evolutionary relationship of a group of organism.

A phylogenetic tree or evolutionary tree is a branching diagram or 'tree' , showing the inferred evolutionary relationships among various biological species.

The taxa joined together in the tree are implied to have descended from a common ancestor.

The tips of a phylogenetic tree can be living organisms or fossils and the end or the present in an evolutionary lineage. Phylogenetic analyses have become central to understanding biodiversity, evolution , ecology and genome.