Classifying Organisms Pt.2 : Phylogeny and Modern Taxonomy

The 2 ways for a species to become similar

1. Convergent evolution

2. Recent common ancestor

Convergent evolution

Relatively unrelated species independently evolve similar features due to similar lifestyle

Recent common ancestor

Organisms being related through a common ancestor can give them similar anatomical features

Modern Taxonomy

• DNA: Determines relatedness

• Phylogenetic: based on the relatedness of species to each other.

Techniques such as DNA used to determine the relatedness of species, which led to a more modern classification system called phylogenetic, which is based on the relatedness of species to each other

Phylogeny

The study of evolutionary relatedness between, and among species (modern classification)

Phylogenetic tree

• Branching diagram that shows the evolutionary relationships between and among species

• Tips of branch represent a particular species or an entire group of species

Clades

• Species are grouped into clades

• A clade is a taxonomic group that includes a single ancestor species and all its descendants

Why has traditional taxonomy been altered

Due to the information provided by phylogeny