We are all one. One Spider, apparently

[andrewducker]

Nice article at Wired News: Linux Reconstructing Tree of Life.

Wheeler's team will work to create a massive data matrix containing detailed information about each spider species -- attributes like size, diet and habitat. The matrix will then be processed to spot subtle relationships between the species, and to figure out how spiders made the transition from their family tree's base to the farthest branches.

Demeter will then analyze the data arrays to arrive at the best tree formation, among many possible trees, that could describe evolutionary relationships.

I'm intrigued as to why they're using non-genetic methods of relating them, especially when there's a move to classify species according to genetic similarities.

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this and realized that one good reason for not using genetic data was the this same program would be used on dinosaurs, where there will never be genetic data and it would be useful to have a test of the same sort of program. Then, I went back and reread the article and saw that it said we combine information from all possible sources, like anatomy and genomic DNA which pleases me, since using genetic info alone can (and has) produced completely meaningless results, but combining it was behavioral and morphological data could be very interesting indeed.