Ryan Gregory has published a wonderful article in
Evolution: Education & Outreach (Gregory, 2008). The article is about understanding evolutionary trees—a subject we all need to pay attention to because there are so many conceptual pits into which we might tumble. You can read the complete article by clicking on the link below or you can read a short answer to the question on his blog
Genomicron [
Phylogenetic fallacies: "branching from a main line"].
Gregory, T.R. (2008) Understanding evolutionary trees. Evolution: Education and Outreach 1: 121-137. [doi:10.1007/s12052-008-0035-x] [PDF]
Ryan Gregory has published a wonderful article in Evolution: Education & Outreach (Gregory, 2008). The article is about understanding evolutionary trees—a subject we all need to pay attention to because there are so many conceptual pits into which we might tumble. You can read the complete article by clicking on the link below or you can read a short answer to the question on his blog Genomicron [Phylogenetic fallacies: "branching from a main line"].
Nothing is wrong. But you may flip the nodes at wish in the graphical represetaion of the tree.
ReplyDeleteNo big deal. This is no "bad" or "evil" tree
That's right -- it's not the tree itself but its interpretation.
ReplyDeleteIt's like one of those apple trees that bears 5 different varieties!
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong? Clearly all the other animals are branches off the straight line leading to humanity. Ya got something against humanity, huh, do ya? That's right, I thought not.
ReplyDeletethe zig-zag with humanity in the middle seemed even more anthropocentric to me
ReplyDelete