The phylogenetic positioning of taxa within a tree has long been of interest to systematicists such that the evolutionary history of life can be studied. However, due to the timescales involved, direct observation of this phenomenon is not possible and as such, evolutionary history must be inferred from observable characters. Traditionally, morphological features have been used to invoke ancestral and present relationships existent between taxa, but with recent technological advantages in genomics, more weight is …showed first 75 words of 1975 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1975 total…data concurrently thus assuming equal levels of usefulness, whether to weight in favour of molecular data and use morphological data as a back-up and vice versa, or whether to treat the two analyses as mutually exclusive and assign equal weight to both. This is a question that will be of importance in the further resolution of phylogenetic trees and the method employed is likely to prove critical in composing a correct picture of phylogenetic history.