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Science 23 January 1998:
Vol. 279. no. 5350, pp. 505 - 506
DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5350.505
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Research Commentaries

EVOLUTION:
The Coming of Age of Molecular Systematics

Laura E. Maley and Charles R. Marshall

For decades, taxonomists examined the insides and outsides of organisms to gain clues about their evolutionary relationships. Recently, molecular biology has provided a new set of characteristics for examination--gene sequences. But constructing evolutionary trees by comparing the sequences of the most commonly used gene, a gene for ribosomal RNA, is not trivial. In their commentary, Maley and Marshall outline the problems encountered in using this method of studying the ancient origins of animals.

L. E. Maley is in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567, USA. C. R. Marshall is in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Molecular Biology Institute, and the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567, USA. E-mail: marshall{at}ess.ucla.edu

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