Phylogeny
/fy-LOJ-en-ee/🏷️ Taxonomy●●● Advanced
Phylogeny represents the evolutionary tree of life — the branching pattern of ancestor-descendant relationships among organisms. Modern phylogenetics uses DNA sequence data to construct phylogenetic trees showing how species, genera, and families are related. The APG (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group) classification system, based on molecular phylogenetics, has dramatically reorganized plant taxonomy since the 1990s.
Etymology
From Greek phylon (tribe, race) + genesis (origin, birth)
Example
“Molecular phylogeny revealed that the water lilies were among the most ancient flowering plant lineages.”