Shapes of Trees

Phylogenetic trees can also be drawn with their root above or to the side of the branch points. Again, this does not change the information contained in the tree.

Two images show the same phylogenetic tree of primates. In the image on the left, the root of the tree is at the top of the image and the primate species are shown at the bottom from left to right. In the image on the right, the root of tree is on the left side of the image and the primate species are shown on the right with the orangutan at the top and the human at the bottom.

These two trees depict the same evolutionary relationships.