Phylogeny, as a biological process, refers to the historical pattern of lineage splitting and character change that generates the evolutionary relationships among organisms or genes over time. It encompasses the processes of speciation, extinction, and divergence of traits driven by mutation, genetic drift, natural selection, recombination, and gene flow, which cumulatively produce branching evolutionary lineages. Phylogenetic processes operate across multiple temporal and spatial scales, shaping hierarchical biodiversity patterns and resulting in genealogical structures that can be inferred from comparative molecular, morphological, or genomic data, forming the basis for reconstructing evolutionary histories and testing macroevolutionary hypotheses.
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