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Overview: This tutorial on phylogenetics explains the basics of tree-thinking and provides many examples from real organisms. This resource is available from the Peabody Museum of Natural History Author/Source: Peabody Museum of Natural History Grade level: 9-12 Time: 20 minutes Teaching tips: This article provides a brief introduction to phylogenetics. It would make a good opening reading for a unit in which students learn more about evolutionary trees and work with phylogenies. 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) Scientists can test ideas about events and processes long past, very distant, and not directly observable. Scientific knowledge is open to question and revision as we come up with new ideas and discover new evidence. (P4, P6, NOS3) Scientists use multiple research methods (experiments, observational research, comparative research, and modeling) to collect data. (P2, P3, P4, NOS1) Classification is based on evolutionary relationships. As with other scientific disciplines, evolutionary biology has applications that factor into everyday life. Evolutionary trees (i.e., phylogenies or cladograms) portray hypotheses about evolutionary relationships. Teacher background: Classification/Phylogenetics

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