 Explaining character trait distributions is just the tip of the iceberg. Phylogenies are centrally important for all research in evolutionary biology. Phylogenetics lies at the heart of the linking of the fields of  systematics[2]  and population genetics. Knowing a phylogeny is an important first step to studying problems in evolutionary biology, functional genetics, comparative anatomy, and evolutionary developmental biology. Just as evolution is the unifying, organizing theme in biology, phylogenetics is the backbone of biological inference more generally. As Sterelny &amp; Griffiths (1999: 379) put it, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the context of its place in phylogeny”.