Amniote Phylogeny presented as a "Tree of Life"

The tree is rooted in the ancestral tetrapoda (amphibia). Sucessive branches correspond to older groups that have diverged as succesively later times. Cross-sections of limbs can be characterized by individual characters that define all succesive twigs on that branch. Compare this tree with a conventional phylogenetic diagram of the same group.


Text © 2002 by Steven M. Carr