Capturing the order in nature and Darwin's tree of life
Resumen
Following the publication in 1859 of On the Origin of Species, perception of natural affinities began to change from a `creation plan', known for similarities and differences among species, to that of `kinship', known for genealogical relationships. The achievement of a diagram to represent affinities through evolutionary relationships became a major enterprise for many naturalists. Although Darwin posed the challenge to depict the common descent and evolutionary relationships for living beings in the form of a `Tree of Life', he was not the first to employ the tree metaphor in the life sciences, as he stated at the beginning of his famous arboreal metaphor: “the affinities of all the beings of the same class have sometimes been represented by a great tree.” Who were those authors that represented affinities of beings in the form of trees and when these trees appeared? Were there other metaphors to represent the order found in nature?
Key words: Natural system, Charles Darwin, Tree of Life, branching diagrams, natural affinities, common descent, genealogical relationships.
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