If all nucleotide sites evolved at the same rate within molecules and throughout the history of lineages, if all nucleotides were in equal proportion, if any nucleotide or amino acid evolved to any other with equal probability, if all taxa could be sampled, if diversification happened at well-spaced intervals, and if all gene segments had the same history, then tree building would be easy. But of course none of those conditions are true. Hence the need for evaluating the information content and accuracy of phylogenetic trees. The symposium for which this historial essay and presentation were developed focused on the importance of phylogenetic support, specifically branch support for individual clades. Here I present a timeline and review significant events in the history of systematics that set the stage for the development of the sophisticated measures of branch support and examinations of the information content of data highlighted in this symposium.

中文翻译：

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系统发育支持的演变观点

如果所有核苷酸位点在分子内和整个谱系历史中以相同的速率进化，如果所有核苷酸的比例相等，如果任何核苷酸或氨基酸以相同的概率进化到任何其他位点，如果所有分类群都可以取样，如果发生多样化以良好的间隔，如果所有基因片段都有相同的历史，那么建树将很容易。但当然，这些条件都不是真的。因此，需要评估系统发育树的信息内容和准确性。撰写这篇历史论文和演示文稿的专题讨论会重点关注系统发育支持的重要性，特别是对单个进化枝的分支支持。