Phylogenetics maps out the evolutionary relationships among organisms from "summary" of The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
Phylogenetics maps out the evolutionary relationships among organisms. It is a bit like a family tree, but with a crucial difference. In your real family tree, your ancestors are always your ancestors. But in a phylogenetic tree, the 'ancestors' are not just your ancestors, they are everybody's ancestors. In other words, the 'ancestors' are hypothetical entities that we are all descended from, but they are not individuals we could ever meet. They are mathematical points in the tree. Of course, they are not really points either, any more than a species is a point. They are more like clouds of probability, or more precisely, clouds of uncertainty. They are the best guesses we can make given the evidence available. Phylogenetics is the way we turn all known organisms into a family tree. It uses the evidence of shared similarities and differences to infer evolutionary relationships. The evidence can come from all sorts of sources, such as fossils, genes, anatomy, behavior, and geographical distribution. These sources can be combined in various ways, and the results can be represented in various ways, but the basic idea is the same. The aim of phylogenetics is not just to draw pretty trees, although they can be very pretty indeed. The aim is to reconstruct the history of life on Earth. That is not an easy task. The history of life is incredibly messy. It is like trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces missing, and many of the ones we do have are damaged or fake. The power of phylogenetics is that it can make predictions. It can tell us things we did not know before. It can tell us things we could not possibly have known before, because they are about events that happened millions or even billions of years ago. It can tell us things that are counterintuitive, things that go against what we might have expected. It can tell us things that are surprising, even shocking. But as long as the evidence is good, we have to accept it. Phylogenetics is a powerful tool for understanding the history of life on Earth. It is a tool that can help us make sense of the incredible diversity of organisms that inhabit our planet. It can help us appreciate the connections between all living things, and the remarkable journey that has led to the world we see today.
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