Bioscientifica Proceedings

Summary. Phylogenetics is the study of evolutionary relationships among species. Phylogenies are based on the comparison of large numbers of characteristics among species. Traditionally, the field of phylogenetics was dominated by paleontologists so the characteristics studied were structural, often skeletal. The field of phylogenetics was revolutionized in the 1980s as scientists began using molecular data, first amino acid, then nucleotide sequences. This le...