linguistic:translation, structural:summarization
Inference of a phylogenetic tree

Usual methods of phylogenetic inference involve computational approaches implementing the optimality criteria and methods of parsimony, maximum likelihood (ML), and MCMC -based Bayesian inference. All these depend upon an implicit or explicit mathematical model describing the evolution of characters observed.

Phenetics, popular in the mid-20th century but now largely obsolete, used distance matrix -based methods to construct trees based on overall similarity in morphology or similar observable traits (i.e. in the phenotype or the overall similarity of DNA, not the DNA sequence), which was often assumed to approximate phylogenetic relationships.

Prior to 1950, phylogenetic inferences were generally presented as narrative scenarios. Such methods are often ambiguous and lack explicit criteria for evaluating alternative hypotheses.