Lecture 15: Phylogeny and Systematics (EEB 122)
This lecture details methods for reconstructing the Tree of Life using genetic analysis, emphasizing how appearances can mislead phylogenetic groupings. It introduces criteria like parsimony and likelihood for determining accurate evolutionary relationships based on shared characteristics.
Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior (EEB 122)
The Tree of Life must be discovered through rigorous analysis. Genetic information is crucial because appearances can be deceiving, and species that look similar can prove to be genetically very dissimilar and not share recent common ancestors. Two criteria, used to determine what the "correct" Tree is, are simplicity and whether the tree maximizes the probability of observing what we actually see.
Lecture 14: Species and Speciation (EEB 122)
Next · Lecture 16Lecture 16: Comparative Methods: Trees, Maps, and Traits (EEB 122)