No, you’ll end up with a branch. A living species will form the tip of the one branch being considered, which is just part of the tree. And the tree has many tips.
btw, the layout of the fossil halls at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan is in the form of a phylogenetic tree.
I think I’m approaching from a different direction. From a purely scientific standpoint life just is. Science doesn’t assign value and judgment unless it is performed improperly. It doesn’t say one type of life is better than others. Likewise, the question asked in this thread is not a question science can answer! Imagine asking science if a sedimentary rock is different or ontologically greater than an igneous one. What does that even mean? This is not a scientific question and to make it one is to completely misunderstand the nature of science.
God answered this in Genesis and more importantly, during the incarnation. When I say we are the top of the evolutionary ladder I am filtered by theology because I am not addressing, in my mind, a scientific question. So I admit my other response which said “biologically speaking” was a poor choice of words and should be retracted. What I meant was that our cognitive facilities and our ability to even have a field such as biology demonstrates this. I firmly think humans are the top rung of the evolutionary ladder because of our brains. Does biology teach us this? Not the judgment aspect but yes it’s clear we are the most advanced brain-wise.
But OP asked what science has to say about this and the answer is nothing. Science assign no value to anything unless we bring other presuppositions to the table.
Vinnie
Thanks, I agree with you that science per se makes no value-judgements on different forms of life and also agree that (theologically) God probably relates to humans in a unique way because of the way our brains work (e.g., we have a high level of self-awareness and social-relational communication skill). Perhaps it’s pedantic, but I would still hesitate to use the wording that you used above: “it’s clear we are most advanced brain-wise”. Because it all depends on how one defines “advancement” in a brain. In my example earlier in this thread, migratory birds have a part of their brain that is larger and more “advanced” than humans–the part of the brain related to navigation and spatial memory. So a human’s brain is not “more advanced” in ALL aspects. It depends on which trait you are considering…
Humans are more than just animals in the same way that the painting [“Guernica”] is more than just paint on a canvas, and Picasso himself is more than just a Spaniard.
[Thanks to Klax for the correction. In my defense, I do live in an area with a large Basque population.]
Gernika is the Basque name of the locality. Not Picasso’s painting.
That is so cool! I’ve only ever met one Basque. A child refugee from Franco. Apparently Basque is so difficult to learn the Devil only knows how to say yes and no in it.
There was a fire in a hotel in Bilbao. There was a crush in the revolving doors. Don’t put all your Basques in one exit.
Just to be clear, the Basque in my area (Pacific NW in the US) are the descendants of the Basque Diaspora. However, our region still boasts of having the largest Basque population outside of the Basque country itself. There are even schools that teach kids Basque. Gernika was on my mind because I happened to eat lunch here yesterday:
Amazing lamb grinder and croquetas.
Ah, a spoonerism. He liked to ride around on a well boiled icicle.
The tree has many tips, that is correct. The evolutionary tree presenting the taxa ‘primates’ shows humans as the tip of that branch. To capture the attention of the watchers, the branch in focus is usually drawn as the highest branch and with more details than the other branches. Therefore, the highest tip of the tree depends on the interests of the person drawing the tree.
I accept the drawings where humans are shown as the highest tip because I am a human and look the world from a subjective viewpoint, that of a human. At the same time, I try to see matters also from as neutral viewpoint as possible. Sometimes the subjective and neutral viewpoints differ.
My dog Shadow told me that the difference between animals and humans is that humans evolved language which made it possible to conceptualize an invisible being (God) and to accomplish many other great things like developing computer language which made the internet a thing and websites like Biologos possible to share our thoughts. He said he and his pack palls were left with the bark of the evolutionary tree - at least that’s what I think he said in the Metaverse.
Cats believe that we humans were created as a slave race to serve them.
I can believe that. My wife is currently feeding three feral cats - bless their little freeloading souls.
Nope. We are objectively the most complex.
In your subjective opinion 
It depends on how one defines “complex”
Is your uninformed one 
I gave an example where migratory bird’s brains are more “complex and developed” than humans in some aspects…
When one of them writes an ode about it that would make them at least my equal. Bees have inexhaustible navigation skills. And no poetry either.
Order of magnitude we’re about a hundred zettabytes. I reckon that’s an understatement just based on genes. Not connectivity and output.
Like I said above, if you want to start with the a priori definition that “complex” is what humans do and then place that at the top of the scale, then of course by our own (circular) definition we are at the top.
by the way, daphnia have many more genes than humans so by some scale, their genomes are more complex than ours. Just saying there are other ways to assess organisms. You got to pick your (subjective) measure.
When an ode writer flies across the sky for almost 7,000 miles night and day nonstop without instrumental assist, then they can place themselves in the same company as the Bar-tailed Godwit.
“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” -Colossians 4:6
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