August 26- The Tree of Life









To begin talking about The Tree of Life, it is best to know exactly what this means. The tree of life is a history of descent- a set of genetic connections that can describe the relationships of organisms. They can show the similarities and differences between organisms. This can explain how closely a species is related to one another and why. Like, is a monkey more related to a human or a bear?

A part of the Tree of Life is the phylogeny. This is a map of evolutionary history. 

Within a phylogeny, there are different types of groups within the tree. One of them being a monophyletic group. In this type of group, all the species (descendants)share a common ancestor. Below is an example of this.

As you can see, every one of these species can be traced back to the same starting point- the common ancestor.






















Another type of group that is included in the tree is the Paraphyletic group. This group does NOT include all the descendants of the most recent common ancestor. In other words, all of the species cannot be traced back to the very same common ancestor. Only some of the species can. An example is shown below.






Comments

  1. DelaneySeptember 2, 2020 at 12:10 PM

    Hi! First off, I love the dog pictures! Your definitions were clear and your pictures were easy to see and understand! Good work and good luck the rest of the semester!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Morgan PringnitzSeptember 2, 2020 at 7:39 PM

    Hi Kaelyn! I really liked how you described the differences between monophyletic and paraphyletic, this concept has always confused me but you made it very clear. I think this would be a great demonstration for a jr high class and they would be able to comprehend the concept of a phylogeny tree as you described. I hope you have a good semester! PS love the picture of dogs

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 2, 2020 at 11:31 PM

    Hello Kaelyn! I liked how you described the differences between monophyletic and paraphyletic groups to give a better understanding. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cassidy VaughnSeptember 3, 2020 at 11:04 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Cassidy VaughnSeptember 3, 2020 at 11:06 PM

    Hi Kaelyn,
    First thing, I am loving the picture of the dog breeds. I think your explanations/descriptions are awesome and you can tell you took time to find a way to explain the difference in a way anyone could understand. Your drawings are also great because they are easy to read and well made. You did great!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment