Phylogeny as the basis for the sub-fields of biosemiotics

Abstract Biosemiotics is the study of biological signs and communication. There is no consensus about how its sub-fields should be organized: a great chain of semiosis or a nested hierarchy or mutually exclusive branches? However, sense organs, transmitters, receptors, hormones, enzymes, and genes – all the biological features that biosemiosis is based on – have emerged through evolution. Their evolution can be traced using a predominantly diverging hierarchy of gene and species phylogenetic trees. The differences between (i) megabats and microbats and between (ii) baleen whales and toothed whales, are given as examples of how the branches of the phylogenetic tree of life can be used as the basis for the sub-fields of biosemiotics.