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Overview:
Scientists use many different lines of evidence to reconstruct the evolutionary trees that show how species are related.
This article is located within Evolution 101.Author/Source:
UC Museum of Paleontology Grade level:
9-12 Time:
30-40 minutes Teaching tips:
This article provides a comprehensive, general introduction to phylogenetics. It would make a good opening reading for an activity in which students apply phylogenetic concepts to specific data sets, research the relationships within a particular clade, or investigate the tree of life. Concepts:
Correspondence to the Next Generation Science Standards is indicated in parentheses after each relevant concept. See our conceptual framework for details. - Biological evolution accounts for diversity over long periods of time. (LS4.A, LS4.D)
- Through billions of years of evolution, life forms have continued to diversify in a branching pattern, from single-celled ancestors to the diversity of life on Earth today.
- Present-day species evolved from earlier species; the relatedness of organisms is the result of common ancestry. (LS4.A)
- Anatomical similarities of living things reflect common ancestry. (LS4.A)
- Evolution does not consist of progress in any particular direction.
- Scientists test their ideas using multiple lines of evidence. (P6, NOS2)
- Scientists can test ideas about events and processes long past, very distant, and not directly observable.
- Scientists use anatomical evidence to infer the relatedness of taxa. (LS4.A)
- Classification is based on evolutionary relationships.
- Evolutionary trees (i.e., phylogenies or cladograms) are built from multiple lines of evidence.
- Evolutionary trees (i.e., phylogenies or cladograms) portray hypotheses about evolutionary relationships.
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