Gunpreet, Subject Matter Expert at Edumarz
Answer: Evolutionary relationships between various species assist us to identify their ancestors. We get to know from which ancestors today’s species arose. It is a kind of going backward in time.
Evolutionary relationships can be decided in many ways:
By identifying the hierarchies of characteristics between Species. The more common characteristics among two species mean the more closely they are related. And more recently they will have had a common ancestor. Thus evolutionary relationships help a lot in the classification of species.
By identifying homologous and analogous characteristics between different species.
By identifying fossils: Interestingly, fossils help us to identify the evolutionary relationship between the species that no longer exists. Fossils are the preserved remains of living organisms that existed many years ago.
Importance of Fossils:
Fossils help us to predict the age of organisms that lived in the past. Fossils present in the deepest layers of earth indicate the presence of those organisms thousands of years ago, while those present near the surface are the recent ones. It also indicates the evolution process over the years.
Fossils have explained the evolutionary relationship between birds and reptiles. Fossils of some dinosaurs, which are reptiles, have shown that they had feathers but did not use them to fly. Birds later adapted these feathers to flight. It means birds are closely related to reptiles.