Phylogenetic Systematics and Characters in Evolutionary Biology, Slides of Geology

Download Phylogenetic Systematics and Characters in Evolutionary Biology and more Slides Geology in PDF only on Docsity! Vertebrate Lineage (“JMonophyly [SParaphyly MPolyphyly Amwniota Tetrapoda Vertebrata Docsity.com Let’s test our knowledge! Docsity.com Phylogenetic Systematics/Cladistics • Based on Willi Hennig work (1950) • Modern approach that investigates how evolution occurred to generate the observed similarities between species • Objective – deduce ancestry through observations of the changes in characteristics • Method – construction of phylogenetic trees Docsity.com Phylogenetic Systematics How can the history of evolution be reconstructed without seeing speciation events? 1) Identification of key characters (heritable parts or attributes of an organism) 2) Transform characters into transformation series 3) Compare these characters to an outgroup 4) Construct a cladogram based on the observed similarities between species Outgroup: a related taxon used to infer primitive and derived character states Docsity.com Characters • Heritable traits with different states that can be used to infer evolutionary relationships • Morphological – Physical measurements – General form • Molecular Docsity.com