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Asked by: Venerando Boldo
science geneticsHow do taxonomists investigate evolutionary relationships between organisms?
Accordingly, what can be used to determine evolutionary relationships?
Section Summary. To build phylogenetic trees,scientistsmust collect character information that allowsthem to makeevolutionary connections between organisms.Usingmorphologic and molecular data, scientists work toidentifyhomologous characteristics and genes.
Similarly one may ask, how is biogeography useful for identifying evolutionary relationships?
Biogeography can be used to explainhowspecies that share a common ancestor and weregeographicallyseparated adapted to their new environments vianatural selection.The fossil record provides a record of howanatomical features oforganisms have changed overtime.
DNA evidence for evolution If two species have the "same" gene, itisbecause they inherited it from a common ancestor. Ingeneral, themore DNA differences in homologous genesbetween two species,the more distantly the speciesarerelated.