分子系統学
Molecular phylogenetics and molecular evolution correlate. Molecular evolution is the process of selective changes (mutations) at a molecular level (genes, proteins, etc.) throughout various branches in the tree of life (evolution). Molecular phylogenetics makes inferences of the evolutionary relationships that arise due to molecular evolution and results in the construction of a phylogenetic tree. The figure displayed on the right depicts the phylogenetic tree of life as one of the first detailed trees, according to information known in the 1870s by Haeckel.