The code that is DNA

[Paleophyte]

1. That phylogenies are hypotheses.

Wrong. Do you actually know anything about phyletics?

2. That they are not (or are rarely) testable.

Dead wrong. How else do you think we produce, revise, and discard them? There are entire journals devoted to little else.

3. That relatedness is an assumption in the absence of known ancestry.

It's an assumption that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow. Can we assume that you know how basic inference works?

4. That one can't use nucleic acids to prove relatedness.

I wonder how you think paternity tests work.