Biodiversity & Evolution: Reconstructing the Phylogeny

A collection of flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts related to biodiversity, evolution, and the reconstruction of phylogenetic trees.

Phylogenetic inference

The method of reconstructing the evolutionary history of species based on data and constructing trees.

Plesiomorphy

An ancestral character state.

Apomorphy

A derived character state.

Monophyletic group

A group that includes a common ancestor and all its descendants.

Paraphyletic group

A group that includes a common ancestor and some, but not all, of the ancestor's descendants.

Polyphyletic group

A group that does not include the common ancestor of the group.

Cladistics

A method of classifying organisms based on common ancestry and derived characteristics.

Homoplasies

Similar character states that evolved independently, often through adaptation to similar ecological niches.

Synapomorphy

A shared derived character state that indicates evolutionary relationships among groups.

Maximum parsimony

A method that seeks to minimize the number of character changes to determine phylogenetic relationships.

Distance matrix

A table recording the number of differences between each pair of species based on character data.

Homologous positions

Positions in DNA sequences that are derived from a common ancestor.

Long branch attraction

A phenomenon where rapidly evolving lineages are incorrectly grouped together in a phylogenetic tree due to saturation with change.

Maximum likelihood method

A statistical method used to find the tree that makes the observed data most probable under a specific model of evolution.

Character matrix

A table representing the traits of different organisms to aid in determining their evolutionary relationships.

Analogy

A similarity between organisms due to convergent evolution, not shared ancestry.