Editing Phylogenetic tree (section)

== History ==

{{further|Tree of life (biology)}}

The idea of a [[tree of life (biology)|tree of life]] arose from ancient notions of a ladder-like progression from lower into higher forms of [[life]] (such as in the [[Great Chain of Being]]). Early representations of "branching" phylogenetic trees include a "paleontological chart" showing the geological relationships among plants and animals in the book ''Elementary Geology'', by [[Edward Hitchcock]] (first edition: 1840).

[[Charles Darwin]] featured a diagrammatic [[Tree of life (biology)|evolutionary "tree"]] in his 1859 book ''[[On the Origin of Species]]''. Over a century later, [[Evolutionary biology|evolutionary biologist]]s still use [[Tree structure|tree diagram]]s to depict [[evolution]] because such diagrams effectively convey the concept that [[speciation]] occurs through the [[Adaptation|adaptive]] and [[randomness|semirandom]] splitting of lineages.

The term ''phylogenetic'', or ''phylogeny'', derives from the two [[ancient greek]] words {{wikt-lang|grc|φῦλον}} ({{grc-transl|φῦλον}}), meaning "race, lineage", and {{wikt-lang|grc|γένεσις}} ({{grc-transl|γένεσις}}), meaning "origin, source".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Abrégé du dictionnaire grec français |last=Bailly |first=Anatole |date=1981-01-01 |publisher=Hachette |isbn=978-2010035289 |location=Paris |oclc=461974285 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tabularium.be/bailly/ |title=Greek-french dictionary online |last=Bailly |first=Anatole |website=www.tabularium.be |access-date=March 2, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421003247/http://www.tabularium.be/bailly/ |archive-date=April 21, 2014 }}</ref>