Evolution, Ecology and Behavior with Stephen C. Stearns - 15. Phylogeny and Systematics

Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior (EEB 122) The Tree of Life must be discovered through rigorous analysis. Genetic information is crucial because appearances can be deceiving, and species that look similar can prove to be genetically very dissimilar and not share recent common ancestors. Two criteria, used to determine what the "correct" Tree is, are simplicity and whether the tree maximizes the probability of observing what we actually see. 00:00 - Chapter 1. Introduction 04:30 - Chapter 2. Grouping by Common Ancestry 15:11 - Chapter 3. Misleading Analogies 24:43 - Chapter 4. The Process of Phylogenetic Grouping 35:04 - Chapter 5. The Logic of Grouping by Shared Characteristics 42:56 - Chapter 6. Summary Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses This course was recorded in Spring 2009.