The Tree of Life

 Phylogenetic Tree

A phylogenetic tree is an illustration of how species are related to one another through evolution that has occurred for as long as millions (and billions) of years! The diagram that illustrates these relationships connects species through branching, hence the name "tree".


Monophyletic is all the organisms of a single common recent ancestor as well as the ancestor.

The diagram above depicts a monophyletic group because it contains all the organisms of the common recent ancestor as well as the ancestor. In this example, we see a made-up illustration of how the avian pokemon are related through evolution (real evolution, not pokemon's version of evolution)!


Paraphyletic is very similar to monophyletic except it does NOT include all of the descendant organisms.
The diagram above depicts a paraphyletic group because the recent common ancestor (Squirtle) is included but not all the organisms (Kingler and Psyduck) are included. This example uses water pokemon to illustrate a paraphyletic tree!



Comments

  1. Morgandy HaggardSeptember 3, 2020 at 6:29 PM

    Hey Peyton! I loved your phylogenetic trees and how you were creative and used Pokemon! You also did a great job on explaining the difference between monophyletic and paraphyletic, it was super easy to understand! I really enjoyed reading your blog and hope you have a great semester!

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  2. Catalina PerezSeptember 3, 2020 at 8:32 PM

    Hello Peyton! I loved how you used Pokemon as an example, it definitely makes it easier to understand. You explained it as simple as you could which makes it easier for the reader. It is amazing to see how phylogenetic trees work, I wish all trees were just Pokemon. I also enjoy your trees, I prefer the triangle trees as well.
    -Catalina Perez

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