{
  "schema": "evo-edu.notebook.reasoning_scaffold.v1",
  "id": "notebook.concepts.common-descent",
  "title": "Common Descent",
  "created": "2026-05-14",
  "updated": "2026-05-14",
  "status": "pilot-reviewed-scaffold",
  "concept_targets": [
    "common descent",
    "shared ancestry",
    "branching history",
    "nested similarity",
    "lineage splitting",
    "comparative evidence",
    "historical inference"
  ],
  "site_links": [
    {
      "kind": "concept",
      "title": "Speciation",
      "url": "/notebook/concepts/speciation.html"
    },
    {
      "kind": "concept",
      "title": "Adaptation",
      "url": "/notebook/concepts/adaptation.html"
    },
    {
      "kind": "concept",
      "title": "Natural Selection",
      "url": "/notebook/concepts/natural-selection.html"
    },
    {
      "kind": "research_tool",
      "title": "Literature Explorer",
      "url": "/apps/literature-explorer/"
    }
  ],
  "records": [
    {
      "id": "cd-001",
      "type": "definition-check",
      "question": "What does common descent claim?",
      "answer_summary": "Common descent claims that lineages of organisms trace back through shared ancestors in a branching history.",
      "verification_prompt": "State what ancestry pattern is being claimed and what evidence supports branching rather than isolated similarity.",
      "misconception_guard": "Do not reduce common descent to a claim that everything simply looks alike.",
      "didactopus_prompt_seed": "Rewrite the claim so the branching ancestry pattern is explicit."
    },
    {
      "id": "cd-002",
      "type": "pattern-check",
      "question": "Why is branching important?",
      "answer_summary": "Branching explains why some inherited traits are shared broadly, others only in smaller groups, and differences emerge in patterned ways.",
      "verification_prompt": "Ask whether the evidence fits a nested branching pattern or only a scattered resemblance list.",
      "misconception_guard": "Do not treat one similarity as enough to establish the larger historical pattern.",
      "didactopus_prompt_seed": "Describe how broad and narrower trait groupings support a branching history."
    },
    {
      "id": "cd-003",
      "type": "nested-evidence",
      "question": "Why are nested similarities more important than isolated resemblances?",
      "answer_summary": "A strong ancestry claim depends on many traits fitting a coherent branching pattern, not just on one eye-catching resemblance.",
      "verification_prompt": "Compare whether multiple traits and evidence streams support the same grouping pattern.",
      "misconception_guard": "Do not let a single dramatic feature outweigh the overall pattern.",
      "didactopus_prompt_seed": "State one visible resemblance and then explain why the larger nested pattern matters more."
    },
    {
      "id": "cd-004",
      "type": "bridge-check",
      "question": "How does speciation connect to common descent?",
      "answer_summary": "Speciation supplies the repeated lineage-splitting events that, over long timescales, generate the larger tree of shared ancestry.",
      "verification_prompt": "Explain how many local lineage splits accumulate into a larger branching historical pattern.",
      "misconception_guard": "Do not treat speciation and common descent as unrelated topics.",
      "didactopus_prompt_seed": "Rewrite the explanation so local lineage splitting and larger shared ancestry are shown as connected."
    },
    {
      "id": "cd-005",
      "type": "multi-evidence-check",
      "question": "Why use many lines of evidence?",
      "answer_summary": "Because common descent is a historical claim, confidence grows when fossils, genetics, development, anatomy, and geography support the same branching picture.",
      "verification_prompt": "Name at least two different evidence streams and how they support the same history.",
      "misconception_guard": "Do not act as if one evidence stream must carry the whole case alone.",
      "didactopus_prompt_seed": "List two evidence types and explain how they converge on the same ancestry claim."
    }
  ],
  "citegeist_source_slots": [
    {
      "slot": "common-descent-foundations",
      "needed_for": "Foundational treatments of common descent and branching ancestry",
      "candidate_queries": [
        "Darwin common descent branching ancestry classic treatment",
        "shared ancestry branching evolution foundational explanation"
      ],
      "review_status": "pending"
    },
    {
      "slot": "common-descent-evidence",
      "needed_for": "Explanatory treatments of nested evidence from genetics, anatomy, fossils, and development",
      "candidate_queries": [
        "common descent nested hierarchy evidence genetics anatomy fossils",
        "shared ancestry comparative evidence educational explanation"
      ],
      "review_status": "pending"
    }
  ],
  "doclift_use": "Use this JSON as a fixture for concept pages that move from population mechanisms and lineage splitting into broader historical inference.",
  "groundrecall_use": "Store rationale, pending source-slot work, and revision notes about ancestry evidence so later Notebook pages can reuse the same multi-evidence structure.",
  "next_review_steps": [
    "Backfill reviewed sources for foundational and explanatory treatments of common descent.",
    "Add one worked comparison between nested ancestry evidence and a misleading superficial similarity.",
    "Link this page into later Notebook pages on fossil history, deep time, and macroevolution."
  ]
}