Third sentence of the lead Hello I was just perusing this article randomly and I have a suggestion for the third sentence of the lead paragraph It reads Anatomical similarities geographical distribution of similar species and the fossil record indicate that all organisms are descended from a common ancestor through a long series of these divergent events stretching back in a tree of life that has grown over the 3 500 million years of life on Earth I have two comments on this sentence 1 First it seems to me that the purpose of the sentence is to lay out at the highest level the independent lines of evidence in support of evolution As such I think that DNA or genetic similarities is a fourth line of independent evidence of the same level of importance as the three lines already listed in the sentence Certainly those three lines of evidence are the ones Darwin primarily relied upon when he laid out the theory actually he more apologized for the fossil record than relied upon it as an independent source of supporting evidence but I think the incorporation of genetic evidence into the theory of evolution is at least as important a source of independent evidence and should be included in this sentence 2 Secondly for both anatomical similarities and genetic similarities it s not so much the similarities per se that are crucial it s the pattern of those similarities The article states later that it s the fact that these similarities can be classified into a hierarchy of nested groups that is key to their support of the theory of evolution I understand the lead isn t supposed to go into all the detail that is laid out later in the article but I still feel it s crucial to say something about how it s the nature of the similarities that s important I might suggest A nested hierarchy of anatomical and genetic similarities geographical distribution of similar species and the fossil record indicate that all organisms are descended from a common ancestor through a long series of these divergent events stretching back in a tree of life that has grown over the 3 500 million years of life on Earth for that sentence