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.
Artificial intelligence is now better than humans at identifying many patterns, but evolutionary relationships have always been difficult for the technology to decipher. A team from the Bioinformatics Department at Ruhr University ...
Evolution
Sep 10, 2025
0
0
Researchers have described a large set of previously unrecognized enzymatic domains—named the Lipocone superfamily—and outlined their evolutionary pathway from bacterial defense molecules to key players in human development.
Molecular & Computational biology
Sep 9, 2025
0
0
New genetic techniques are shedding light on a mysterious part of our family tree—ancient human relatives called the Denisovans that emerged during the Pleistocene epoch, approximately 370,000 years ago.
This month, George Tiley began his NC State appointment as an assistant professor of plant and microbial biology. Right before his Aug. 1 start date, Tiley and colleagues published a Perspectives piece in the Proceedings ...
Evolution
Aug 25, 2025
0
0
The British evolutionary biologist JBS Haldane is said to have quipped that any divine being evidently had "an ordinate fondness for beetles." This "bon mot" conveyed an important truth: the "tree of life"—the family tree ...
Evolution
Aug 20, 2025
0
63
The evolutionary success of our species may have hinged on minute changes to our brain biochemistry after we diverged from the lineage leading to Neanderthals and Denisovans about half a million years ago.
Evolution
Aug 4, 2025
0
174
A cross-institutional team of researchers from Macquarie University, UNSW and the University of Nebraska has unpicked the reasons why hundreds of bat and bird species across Central and South America live in close proximity. ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 30, 2025
0
9
Scientists have shed new light on the rhino family tree after recovering a protein sequence from a fossilized tooth from more than 20 million years ago. The recovered protein sequences allowed researchers to determine that ...
Evolution
Jul 9, 2025
0
2
An international research team led by scientists from the University of Vienna has uncovered new insights into how specialized cell types and communication networks at the interface between mother and fetus evolved over millions ...
Evolution
Jul 3, 2025
0
52
Parental egg-care in fish traps them in an evolutionary dead-end through the loss of the chorion-hardening system, according to scientists from the Institute of Science Tokyo. Fish have diverse egg-caring strategies that ...
Evolution
Jun 27, 2025
0
0
