23.2 Building a Phylogenetic Tree

Up to this point, we have focused on how to interpret a phylogenetic tree, a diagram that depicts the evolutionary history of organisms. But how do we infer evolutionary history from a group of organisms? That is, how do we actually construct a phylogenetic tree? Biologists use characteristics of organisms to figure out their relationships. Similarities among organisms are particularly important in that similarities sometimes suggest shared ancestry. However, a key principle of constructing trees is that only some similarities are actually useful. Others can in fact be misleading.