| 生命之树与进化模式:导言 |
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| 摘 要： | One and half centuries ago, Charles Darwin (1859) presented overwhelming evidence and argued that all life on the earth shared common descent, and "from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved". Ernst Haeckel (1886) and several of his contemporaries attempted to trace the pattern of descent among all extant and extinct forms in what Darwin referred to as "the great Tree of Life". Ever since then, systematists and evolutionary biologists have been exploring morphological, cytogenetic, chemical, developmental and molecular characters, and actively developing theories and methods to infer phylogenetic relationships among organisms from these characters. This endeavor has been especially stimulated by the rise of molecular biology and the emergence of computer science over the past 50 years. At the beginning of the 21st century, we are presented with an unprecedented opportunity to reconstruct the entire Tree of Life, and further, to study evolutionary processes and mechanisms in the context of a robust phylogenetic framework.
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| 关 键 词： | 进化模式 Life Tree Evolution Patterns Tracing study processes mechanisms context robust framework opportunity entire century endeavor especially rise molecular biology emergence |
Tracing Patterns of Evolution through the Tree of Life: Introduction |
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| Abstract: | One and half centuries ago, Charles Darwin (1859) presented overwhelming evidence and argued that all life on the earth shared common descent, and "from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved". Ernst Haeckel (1886) and several of his contemporaries attempted to trace the pattern of descent among all extant and extinct forms in what Darwin referred to as "the great Tree of Life". Ever since then, systematists and evolutionary biologists have been exploring morphological, cytogenetic, chemical, developmental and molecular characters, and actively developing theories and methods to infer phylogenetic relationships among organisms from these characters. This endeavor has been especially stimulated by the rise of molecular biology and the emergence of computer science over the past 50 years. At the beginning of the 21st century, we are presented with an unprecedented opportunity to reconstruct the entire Tree of Life, and further, to study evolutionary processes and mechanisms in the context of a robust phylogenetic framework. |
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