BIOA01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 23: Phylogenetic Tree, Paraphyly, Synapomorphy

• School: UTSC
• Department: Biological Sciences
• Course: BIOA01H3
• Professor: Mark Fitzpatrick

Document Summary

Speciation: set of processes by which physically, physiologically, or ecologically isolated populations diverge from one another to the point where they can"t produce fertile offspring anymore. Speciation can be thought of as a process of branching. Node: point where a branch splits, representing the common ancestor from which the descendant species diverged. A node represents the most recent common ancestor of two descendant species. 2 related disciplines within systematics (the study of evolutionary relationships among organisms): phylogenetic and taxonomy (classi cation of organisms) Taxonomy gives us a hierarchical classi cation of species in groups that are more and more inclusive, making it convenient to communicate information about the features each group possesses. Phylogenetic aims to discover pattern of evolutionary relatedness among groups of species or other groups by comparing their anatomical or molecular features and depicting the relationships as a phylogenetic tree.