"how do you interpert phylogenetic trees?"?
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A phylogenetic tree is a graphic representation of a phylogenetic hypothesis. Each node in the tree represents a cladogenetic (branch-producing) event, in which an ancestral population split into descendant populations. The "branches" of the tree represent ancestral-descendant relationships, and the terminal nodes or "tips" are defined taxa (species, genera, or other categories).
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Use the Linnaeus System:\n\nKingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species\n\nA way to remember it: Katie Put Clams On Fred's Giant Stomach. I learned it in HS Biology 30+ years ago and never have forgotten it.
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This project will build a phylogenetically-structured database focusing on gene duplication events and will use a gene-tree database to address functional outcomes of major genome duplication events in dicot plants.\n\nPlant genomics research is poised to provide direct benefits to the agricultural industry. Genetically engineered varieties are already a major component of the US crops of corn, cotton, and soybean. The long-term trend toward increased exploitation of this technology is inevitable. This provides a mechanism for the agricultural industry to lead the world in innovative products that will ensure a more secure world food supply.\n\nTo make this potential a reality, geneticists and molecular biologists must be able to identify genes and manipulate them to achieve desired traits in crops. However, crop plant genomes are complicated in a way that makes this search difficult. One major source of complication is the polyploid ancestry that many or most crop plants have experienced in their evolutionary history. Polyploidy is the phenomenon of an entire doubling of the chromosomal complement, such that each gene occurs in two copies. Many of these duplicates are subsequently lost and some become specialized for new roles; this can occur within a species or through the hybridization of closely related species.\n\nThis source of complexity in plant genomes hampers the effectiveness of efforts at crop improvement by plant geneticists, breeders, and molecular biologists. Sorting out the multiple similar copies in a family of recently duplicated genes to find the one which has retained the desired function is a basic requirement for many kinds of genetic research aimed at crop improvement. In this proposal, Drs. B. Sobral (PI) and A. Dickerman (co-PI) have been funded by the USDA to develop an informatics system that will help sort out these multiplicities. This informatics effort will be complemented by laboratory data generation to find all copies of genes in targeted families and identify which are still functional. The analytical system developed here will be used in collaborative research with plant scientists on the Virginia Tech campus ( Dr. John McDowell ) and at Cornell University ( Dr. Steven Tanksley ) to address genes with direct importance to potential genetic manipulations in crops.\n\nObjectives\n\n    * Build a phylogenetically structured database focusing on gene duplication events.\n    * Build a database to store published phylogenetic trees that bear on agricultural plants. For each tree we would infer reasonable branch-lengths using maximum likelihood on the sequences used to build the tree or a larger set of sequences.\n    * Analyze homology among genes from the core crop species. This will include many members of multi-gene families for which orthology/paralogy relationships are unclear.\n    * Fit gene trees relating the homologous gene sequences onto the structure of the species tree to infer the relative time depths of gene duplication events. The goal is to discover ancient polyploid events and resolve orthology/paralogy relationships in the duplicate genes resulting from the event in descendant species. Use gene-tree database to address functional outcomes of major genome duplication events in dicot plants.\n    * Catalog evidence of specific polyploid events in the history of plants. This includes the search for as yet unknown events as well as adding details to known polyploidies.\n    * Determine how frequently genes are lost versus maintained after a complete genome duplication. We will estimate rates for gene deletion, loss of function through non-sense mutations, amino-acid sequence divergence, and nucleotide divergence.\n    * Determine whether classes of genes can be defined that are lost either faster or more slowly than average. In particular, we will look for differences between metabolic enzyme genes versus signal transduction genes. We will also ask, where possible, whether there is
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This website is pretty good.\n\nhttp://biog-101-104.bio.cornell.edu/Biog101_104/tutorials/frog.html#general
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try this\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology
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The above response made me laugh, so i thought i'd answer your question....\n\n"A phylogenetic tree is a form of a cladogram"\n\n"A recent trend in biology since the 1960s, called cladism or cladistic taxonomy, requires taxa to be clades."
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Dude,\n  Are you doing this for homework or to build a relational database?  Er, I am the second answer.  Funny enough, I make console video games.  Yeah, weird, eh?\n\nhttp://www.cs.ualberta.ca/~joe/Research/binary.html\n(this one is, well, um, interesting) http://domino.research.ibm.com/Comm/wwwr_ponder.nsf/solutions/November2005.html\n\nBut here is what you want:\nhttp://math.hws.edu/eck/cs225/s03/binary_trees/\n\nSome more:\nhttp://www.codeproject.com/cpp/BinaryTree.asp\n\nAnd more people like you asking about assignments on homework:\nhttp://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=13817\n\nMore easy to read:\nhttp://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/view.phtml/aid/25923\n\nThen, the usual:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_trees
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This site shows you how to download the free software called Personal Ancestral File, and has detailed on-screen tutorials to show you step-by-step how to use it to build your family tree.\nI've used this program for years and it is very straightforward to use and really helpful in organising my genealogy.
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1024 fruits\nLet\nx = number of trees\nx = number of fruits per tree\nNumber of trees · number of fruits per tree = number of fruits\nx trees · x fruits/tree = 1024 fruits\nx² fruits = 1024 fruits\nx² = 1024\nx = 32\n\ntherefore, there are 32 trees and 32 fruits per tree.\n\n^_^
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This is a great site (http://www.noble.org/webapps/plantimagegallery/Woodies.aspx) if you need pictures.  You can browse through trees by common name, and there are several good pictures of each tree.  Just click on the small pictures of the leaves to enlarge them.  That works if you already have an idea of what kind of tree it is (if you know it's an oak, you can browse through the oaks until you find the right one).  There's also a search engine, that lets you search for things like leaf arrangement, leaf shape, and flower color, so you can figure out the ones you really don't know, too.  Hope that helps!
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I'm not familiar with the algorithm, but I'll take a stab at the question. Reconstructing phylogenies genetically has to do with comparing DNA sequences. The mathmatical analysis has to do with determining what is the likelihood that two sequences of DNA can be the same by chance alone. If the odds are that they would be unlikely to be the same by random chance, they would be considered to have had a common ancestor.\n\nYou can think about the probabilities here. If you flip a coin twice, the chances of getting heads both times is pretty good. If you flip it a hundred times, the chance of getting heads everytime is diminishingly small. \n\nThe algorithm probably compares DNA sequences and determines how likely it is that they are related, and how closely related. I don't do this kind of work, so someone else may know specifically, but this would be the idea.
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Defining a species of virus is problematic because many biologists do not consider them to be alive.  It's the "organism" part of the species definition (any species definiton) that's a problem.\n\nDefining a species of bacteria under the biological species concept is problematic because the BSC defines a species as a collection of organisms that can reproduce only with other members of the same species.  Bacteria reproduce asexually, so they're not reproducing WITH anyone.  However, there are other problems with the BSC. For example, lions and tigers are clearly separate species, but they can interbreed.  So biologists tend to favor other species definitions (like the morphological species concept), which can effectively classify lions and tigers (as well as several other species that are able to interbreed).  These species definitions have no trouble classifying bacteria.
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Family trees don't have symbols.\n\nDo an image search on "family tree."\n\nAlso, family trees are called "pedigree chart."\n\nIt is best to put your genealogical information into a computer program.  They can print out a family tree and other kinds of forms.  Personal Ancestral File is a good one, and it's free!\n\nCheck your local library or online for help knowing how to do research.  You can also ask at the public library to learn how to contact your local genealogical society; they will be glad to help you.
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Your question is actually a really good one.  Basically, you could extend it and ask "What makes any biological group a group?"  It's a field of inquiry that biologists call "taxonomy".  Its objective is to organize living or extinct species according to their relationship, i.e., their shared evolutionary histories.  \n\nAs you may know there are different levels of groups, or, as we say in biology, taxa (one taxon, many taxa).  The perhaps most easy one to envision (at least seemingly so) is the taxon "species".  Our species, Homo sapiens, is one taxon, since all members share certain characteristics, go back to the same origin (ancestral species), and are genetically not isolated (which means, they can produce fertile offspring together).  The next level up would be genera.  Latin names indicate both the genus and the species. In our case the genus would be 'Homo' and the species 'sapiens'.  We have no sister species in our genus, but in other genera there can be numerous species.  Take for example fruit flies.  The genus is 'Drosophila' and is comprised of a variety of species, with 'melanoptera' being perhaps the best known.  \n\nThe problem with taxa is that we are reconstructing their relationship as well as themselves based on our understanding of their biology.  And that is of course never complete.  Using a particular method of comparison of numerous characteristics, ancestral trees can be created to represent how the species evolved and how they are related.  In the genus Drosophila there are numerous species, but throughout their evolutionary history they all originated in one ancestral species, from which other populations branched off and eventually became their very own species.  All members of the taxon 'Drosophila' are monophyletic, which means that they indeed are closely related by origin (i.e., shared ancestor species).\n\nNow, to answer your specific question of what makes a dinosaur.  Someone suggested here that they were reptiles.  A good idea, if only 'reptiles' were really one of those 'monophyletic' groups.  But in fact, they are not.  recent research has shown that those critters we once all subsumed under the term 'reptiles' are actually not at all closely related.  Crocodiles and alligators, for example, are closer related to birds than to snakes.  They form a monophyletic taxon with birds, but not with their fellow 'reptiles'.  Ergo, that criterium 'reptile' is not a very good one.  Then, what are dinosaurs and what makes them a monophyletic group?\n\nThe Dinosauria are a monophyletic group characterized by the following autapomorphies (that are characters shared by all members of the group, in that case all dinosaur species):  elongate vomers, three or more sacral vertebrae, scapulacoracoidal glenoid facing fully backwards, low deltopectoral crest running 1/3 to 1/2 way down humerus, three or fewer phalanges on fourth digit of manus, largely to fully open acetabulum, fully offset proximal head of femur with a distinct neck and ball, greatly reduced fibula, well-developed ascending process of astragalus; upright posture, digitigrade stance.  In a cladistic investigation of a recent taxon (i.e., one that is still alive and not exitincet) taxonomists would also include genetic characteristics, but for extinct species that is a bit difficult (to say the least).  \n\nAt any rate, the list of anatomical characteristics given above gives you the main autapomorphies for the Dinosauria I could find.  Previous classifications usually considered dinosaurs a polyphyletic group with independent origins from thecodont ancestors. Dinosauria are now considered by many monophyletic, because of these numerous autapomorphies.  \n\nIf we found a living species that would also have these characteristics, we would indeed have found a dinosaur.  Extinction is therefore no criterion for taxonomy.  But so far,
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http://faculty.clintoncc.suny.edu/faculty/Michael.Gregory/files/Bio%20101/Bio%20101%20Lectures/DNA/dna.htm
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http://www.seedbiology.de/structure.asp
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To answer you question , I need the detail sizes of trees