Though I don't blog about the topic with the breadth and depth of individuals such as Brian Switek or Darren Naish I do take some interest in natural history. This is the domain which was my original focus as a child when it came to science, and I continue to observe it from afar with great fondness. General questions, such as the role of contingency and necessity in the arc of evolution, are obviously the sort of issue which natural history can be brought to bear upon. But I also have a fascination with specific, often anomalous details. For example, the Monito del Monte of Chile is generally held to be more closely related to the marsupials of Australia than those of the New World. It is the only extant member of the order Microbiotheria, and its connection to Australian marsupials is one of those surprises which go to show you why science is done in the field, and not just theorized from your a priori beliefs. It's why you play the game, and don't simply allow the handicapping professionals to decide wins and losses. A new paper in PLoS Biology explores the phylogenetic relationship of Australian and New World marsupials through a more robust genomically focused technique. Though the method has a "in silico" spin, the basics seem to be grounded in cladistics.
Look for derived characters which can indicate monophyly.
