BIOL 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 51: Phylocode, Monophyly, Ribosomal Rna
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Taxon = each taxonomic unit at any level (family felidae, or class mammalia) . Higher classification levels are generally defined by morphological characteristic chosen by taxonomists: rather than quantitative measurements. Some biologists suggest that all classification be based on evolutionary relationships, using a . Phylocode names only groups that include a common ancestor and all its descendants: most groups would remain the same, just without ranks such as family, order, or class. Use phylogenetic trees to depict hypotheses about evolutionary history of species . Reflect the hierarchical classification of groups nested within more inclusive groups. Shared characters are used to construct phylogenetic trees. To reconstruct a group"s evolutionary history: : sort homologous features (reflect evolutionary relationships) from analogous, infer phylogeny by using homologous characters. Cladistics = organisms are grouped into clades using common ancestry as the primary criterion . Based on darwinian concept that organisms share characteristics with ancestors and differ from them.