the.com/phylogenetics
Family trees for species, built from DNA instead of awkward reunions.
means The scientific study of the evolutionary relationships between species or genes, used to reconstruct branching 'family trees' of life.
from Built from Greek phyle/phylon ('tribe, race, clan') plus genetikos ('relating to origin, birth'), itself from genesis ('origin'). The word phylogeny was coined in the 19th century, most notably promoted by the biologist Ernst Haeckel, to describe the evolutionary history of a species or group — as distinct from ontogeny, the development of an individual organism. 'Phylogenetics' simply adds the suffix marking it as the study/discipline built on that concept.
- core tool
- shared mutations reveal who split from whom
- common myth
- humans did not evolve from chimps, we share an ancestor
- key output
- branching trees called cladograms, not ladders
- wild fact
- birds are technically dinosaurs on this tree