Taxonomy is changing

From class, you should know that information about classification is changing. In fact, the last activity gave an example of that in reclassifying the great apes as Family Hominidae along with humans, instead of in Family Pongidae as previously. The original system scientists used was based primarily on data from comparative anatomy and embryology. But advances in DNA techniques have made it possible to compare species on the molecular level as well. These advances have in some cases confirmed what scientists believed about phylogenetic relationships and in other cases revealed surprising new information. In this task you will be focusing on what key characteristics separate different animal phyla under the traditional system, and to what extent new data sheds a different light on which phyla are most closely related. Click here to view a slide show on this topic. Pay particular attention to the diagrams that show relationships under the different systems, but read the text as well.