Evolution & Epidemiology

The following material was adapted from the University of California at Berkeley Understanding Evolution Website.

The SARS disease had never been seen before it was important to know where it had come from. Evolutionary trees can be created to show the relationships between organisms

The tree in the diagram shows that species F and G share a recent common ancestor (they evolved to be different species from the same species) . They also share a recent common ancestor with species E but that was further back in time. Even further back in time we can see that species C,D,E,F and G all share a common ancestor