Inferred evolutionary relationships are shown on a phylogenetic tree.
A phylogenetic tree or evolutionary tree is a branching diagram or `` tree '' showing the inferred evolutionary relationships among various biological species or other entities -- their phylogeny -- based upon similarities and differences in their physical or genetic characteristics . In a phylogenetic tree , each node with descendants represents the inferred most recent common ancestor of the descendants , and the edge lengths in some trees may be interpreted as time estimates .