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.
Animals of the same species don't always look the same. From birds with different beak shapes to mammals that vary in size or color, populations living in different places can often look very different.
Evolution
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The preference of some mosquitoes in the Anopheles leucosphyrus (Leucosphyrus) group—including those that transmit malaria—for feeding on humans may have evolved in response to the arrival of early hominins in Southeast Asia ...
Evolution
Feb 26, 2026
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Every living organism has its own genetic "blueprint": the source code for how it grows, functions and reproduces. This blueprint is known as a genome. When scientists sequence a genome, they identify and put in order the ...
Ecology
Feb 17, 2026
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We humans have long viewed ourselves as the pinnacle of evolution. People label other species as "primitive" or "ancient" and use terms like "higher" and "lower" animals.
Evolution
Feb 9, 2026
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All life on Earth shares a common ancestor that lived roughly four billion years ago. This so-called "last universal common ancestor" (LUCA) represents the most ancient organism that researchers can study. Previous research ...
Evolution
Feb 5, 2026
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The Cornell Lab of Ornithology today announced the release of a new online tool for studying biodiversity and the evolutionary relationships among birds: the illustrated Birds of the World Phylogeny Explorer. Available on ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 28, 2026
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Gibbons, small apes closely related to humans, face severe threats to their survival. However, their evolutionary history has remained unclear due to their rapid diversification. A new, comprehensive genomic study of gibbons ...
Evolution
Nov 18, 2025
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In the world of phylogenetics, there's team sponge and team comb jelly. Which creature roots the animal tree of life—the simple sponge or the more complex comb jelly—has stirred fierce debate among phylogeneticists, researchers ...
Evolution
Nov 13, 2025
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When COVID-19 arrived, researchers tried to build evolutionary family trees—known as phylogenetic trees—of the virus. These help scientists understand when new virus strains appear and how they are linked to each other. But ...
Evolution
Nov 5, 2025
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Genomes are key to unlocking life's evolutionary history. The presence and absence of certain genetic sequences and mutations can give us clues to the order in which species diverge. However, even state-of-the-art methods ...
Evolution
Nov 5, 2025
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