Another thing that’s crazy about trees is that there is no such thing as a tree, phylogenetically.
As in: there is no branch on the tree of life for trees. There is no first tree from which all trees are descended. There are trees that have a common ancestor that was definitely not a tree, and there are there are plants that are definitely not trees that are descended from trees.
If you look at the tree of life for plants, you see trees evolving into other types of plants and evolving back into trees all over the place.
I feel like it’s time to reframe this from “there is no such thing as a tree”, “there is no such thing as a fish” to “trees and fishes (and crabs) are very competitive types of life, and many phylogenetic lines are pressured towards those traits”.
Biology has gotten real stupid about verbiage and communication lately, in my opinion.
Another thing that’s crazy about trees is that there is no such thing as a tree, phylogenetically.
As in: there is no branch on the tree of life for trees. There is no first tree from which all trees are descended. There are trees that have a common ancestor that was definitely not a tree, and there are there are plants that are definitely not trees that are descended from trees.
If you look at the tree of life for plants, you see trees evolving into other types of plants and evolving back into trees all over the place.
Lots of trees can be bushes and do just fine that way if they don’t get big .
oh so it’s just like fish
I feel like it’s time to reframe this from “there is no such thing as a tree”, “there is no such thing as a fish” to “trees and fishes (and crabs) are very competitive types of life, and many phylogenetic lines are pressured towards those traits”.
Biology has gotten real stupid about verbiage and communication lately, in my opinion.