Phylogenitics
Phylogenetic systematics is the discipline of reconstructing the common ancestry relationships of organisms and constructing formal taxonomic classifications that are logically consistent with these relationships. Phylogenetic systematics grew out of the synthesis of the German entomologist Willi Hennig (1913-1976), whose books on the subject published in 1950 in German and modified into English and Spanish in 1966. Hennig presented on three ideas. First, the most basic relationships among organisms were genealogical/common ancestry relationships and not similarity relationships. Second, only certain homologous characters could confirm the basic hypothesis that two
species are more closely related to each other than to a third species. Third, natural groups of
species are those that include an ancestral
species and all descendants of that species. These ideas were not new, as Hennig acknowledged, but his synthesis presented a new paradigm to
evolutionary biology.The idea that the most basic kinds of relationships are genealogical is generally traced to the emergence of the
evolutionary paradigm. The tree of life is one continuous stream of genealogical descent punctuated by division of the stream that appear as separate branches, as reflected in the one illustration appearing in Darwin's Origin of Species. However, the pre-evolutionary idea of grouping organisms on the basis of similarity rather than genealogy was well-entrenched in taxonomic thought, even when scientists accepted
evolution as the basis for observed similarity.
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