Chapter 5 - Relatedness

and Taxonomy
Relatedness and Taxonomy
• Following the acceptance of evolutionary theory in the 19th
century
• taxonomy, the science of establishing and using biological
classifications, used to represent evolutionary relationships.
• taxonomy became a branch of systematics, the study of the
evolution of biological diversity.
Relatedness and Taxonomy
• 3 goals of systematics
• 1st, evolutionary relatedness should be defined in
terms of common ancestry.
• Organisms are intended to show patterns of
descent, not phenotypic similarity.

• Although closely related organisms often

resemble one another

• they may not if their lineages have evolved at

different rates
• Ex. Aves as a subgroup of reptilia
Relatedness and Taxonomy
• 2nd, classification should follow the rule that the more
recently two organisms last shared a common ancestor,
• the more closely they should be classified.

• 3rd, systematics needed to develop the tools to build

reliable trees.

• This chapter clarifies relatedness vs similarity

• And Nomenclature rules regulating the names of
taxa
THE CONCEPT OF RELATEDNESS
• The degree of relatedness of organisms dictated by how
many generations earlier they last shared a common
ancestor.
• Ex. (1) you are more closely related to your siblings
than to your first cousins
• (2) you are more closely related to chimpanzees
than to mice.

• The real measure of relatedness is not genetic

similarity, but recency of common ancestry.

• in the illustration, the oldest generation is at the top

and the most recent at the bottom.
RELATEDNESS AND PHYLOGENETIC
TREES
• We apply exactly the same principle to species relationships.
• Why is it true to say that a human is more closely related to a
chimpanzee than to a mouse?
RELATEDNESS AND PHYLOGENETIC
TREES
• Common errors in interpreting phylogenetic
trees
• 1st One common error is to look "along" the
tips, and focus on the proximity of labels to
one another.
• This converts the tree into an ordered list:
• Lungfish- salamander- crocodile-
mouse-human.

• Reading across the tips will often lead to

incorrect conclusions about relatedness.
RELATEDNESS AND PHYLOGENETIC
TREES
• Trees can be rearranged and a systematist must be
cautious not change the topology so as not to make
errors

• Conversely, two trees with the same ordering of tips can

imply quite different relationships

• the bottom tree has the tip order retained from

the original tree, but the branching pattern
shows some truly bizarre evolutionary
relationships.
• Ex. a mouse is more closely related to a
crocodile than to a human (Error).
RELATEDNESS AND PHYLOGENETIC
TREES
• A 2nd common error arises from "node counting.“
• Ex. More nodes to pass through when
comparing salamander to human phylogeny
than it is to the lungfish
• Since there are fewer nodes towards
lungfish you might interpret it as
Salamanders are closely related to the
lungfish
 RELATEDNESS AND PHYLOGENETIC
TREES
• A 3rd source of confusion is that evolution is thought to be
a progressive story with humans as the ultimate target.
• ladder thinking thoroughly misrepresents evolution.

• Ex (incorrect): lungfish giving rise to salamanders, giving

rise to reptiles (like crocodiles), giving rise to "lower"
mammals (like mice), and then to the "highest"
mammal, humans.
RELATEDNESS AND PHYLOGENETIC
TREES
• The final common cause of confusion is a natural
tendency to equate relatedness and similarity.
• Relatedness = based on recent common ancestry
• Similarity- based on similar traits
RELATEDNESS AND PHYLOGENETIC
TREES
• To clarify the relationship between birds, crocs, and
lizards
• The features that seem to unite lizards and
crocodiles are symplesiomorphies.
• But birds and crocs have synapomorphies.

• Do the many similarities of lizards and crocodiles

make them more closely related to each other than
to birds? NO
• Birds and crocs share the same common
ancestor
TAXONOMY AND PHYLOGENY
• if one classified organisms on the basis of their traits,
a tidily nested taxonomy usually emerged

• Vertebrates
• Tetrapods and limbless (fish)
• Tetrapods could be divided into amphibious
life style amniotes
• Amniotes into:
• Birds (feathers and wings)
• Mammals (those with fur and milk)
• Reptiles (those with neither feathers nor fur)
MONOPHYLY AND PHYLOGENETIC
SYSTEMATICS
• Despite the development of phylogenetic systematics,
classifications were still based on "important" traits
• Does not accurately reflect evolutionary
relationships.

• The traditional classification of vertebrates is based

partly on plesiomorphic characters,
• explains why 3 of the 5 traditional classes are non-
monophyletic
MONOPHYLY AND PHYLOGENETIC
SYSTEMATICS
• Monophyletic groups have the property that members of
the group are more closely related to each other than to
any organisms outside the group (outgroup)
• A property called exclusivity.

• Non-monophyletic groups do not show exclusivity:

• some organisms are more closely related to
organisms outside the group than they are to other
group members

• Ex.. For example, a lungfish is more closely related to

all the land vertebrates than it is to other members of
Pisces
MONOPHYLY AND PHYLOGENETIC
SYSTEMATICS
• only monophyletic taxa accurately reflect evolutionary relationships
• Modern classifications assume that all taxa are monophyletic.
MONOPHYLY AND PHYLOGENETIC
SYSTEMATICS
• When traditional names are found to apply to non-
monophyletic groups, taxonomists modify the taxon’ s
phylogeny to achieve monophyly

• Ex: some fossil groups formerly placed in Reptilia, but

actually more closely related to mammals, were removed

• Reptilia expanded to include organism closely related

organisms like aves, lizards, and snakes than to mammals
• Reptilia now includes
• Testudines (turtles and tortoises)
• Lepidosauria (tuatara, lizards, and snakes),
• Crocodilia (crocodiles),
• Aves (birds).
MONOPHYLY AND PHYLOGENETIC
SYSTEMATICS
• The taxon Amphibia, was simply contracted to exclude
extinct taxa that are ancestral to amniotes.

• Finally, the name "Pisces" was discarded as a scientific

name.
• taxonomists recognize a number of smaller groups,
each of which is monophyletic
• the relationships of coelacanths and lungfish are
still uncertain

• The term "fish" now refers to assorted lineages of

aquatic vertebrates that have no land-dwelling
ancestors.
VARIETIES OF NON-MONOPHYLY
• It is common to distinguish two varieties of non-monophyly:
• paraphyly and polyphyly

• Paraphyletic groups include the most recent common

ancestor of all group members and some, but not all,
descendants of that ancestor.
• they are united by the plesiomorphic characters
VARIETIES OF NON-MONOPHYLY
• Polyphyletic groups are based on convergently evolved,
nonhomologous characters
• Ex: if we grouped birds and mammals in a taxon called
Homeothermia because they share possession of a
homeothermic metabolism (so-called "warm blood")

• we would produce a polyphyletic group. Because

homeothermy evolved separately in the bird and
mammal lineages,
VARIETIES OF NON-MONOPHYLY
• The distinction between paraphyly and polyphyly is
not very meaningful from a tree-thinking
perspective.
• Because they do not define group content.

• Ex. Tetrapoda includes all organisms in a clade of

organisms, even if some of those organisms lack
the diagnostic trait of having four limbs.
 TAXONOMIC RANKS
• Biological nomenclature: rules in naming taxa.
• Carolus Linnaeus- Swedish botanist
• first developed the taxonomic rank
• Proposed the Binomial system
• Genus(genera) and Species.

• Genus can contain multiple species; but a species is

assigned to only one genus
• Should be italicized or underlined (preferably
italicized)
• Homo sapiens, which may be abbreviated H.
sapiens
TAXONOMIC RANKS
• The most basic role of taxonomy is to provide a stable
tool for scientific communication, by attaching names
to taxa.

• Ex. When someone talks about "Lepidoptera,“

• it is important that this term have an unambiguous
meaning.
TAXONOMIC RANKS
• During the 19th century, the number of practicing
taxonomists increased
• Codes of nomenclature was developed.
• 1st) the codes state that all organisms must be
assigned to a few mandatory ranks: species,
genus, and family

• 2nd) standardized endings are proposed for many

ranks

• 3rd) the correct name of a taxon is determined by

the principle of priority at rank.
• recognizing the first valid application of a
name to a plant or animal
TAXONOMIC RANKS
• Several ideas have been proposed to try to tie down the concept of rank
• 1st, to use the amount of morphological or ecological diversity within a
taxon or the degree of phenotypic difference between a clade and its
nearest relatives to assign rank.
TAXONOMIC RANKS
• 2nd, base rank on the number of included species:
higher ranks containing more than a threshold number
of species.

• 3rd interpretation of rank is based on a group's

evolutionary age:
• older clades being assigned to higher taxonomic
ranks than younger clades.
• Issues: determining “age” is unclear