Question

Clarity why a diagram of evolution looks more like a bush than a straight line

Answer 1

Straight-line evolutionary tree would means that organisms evolved in orderly steps. Thus, evolutionary (phylogenic) tree is branched, representing distinct relationships among various organisms. Organisms are grouped according to their similarities and differences in their physical or genetic characteristics. All organisms of Earth are inside the evolutionary tree, meaning that they all originate from one common ancestor. Node on the tree represents the inferred most recent common ancestor.

Answer 2

The reason why an evolutionary diagram looks more like a bush than a straight line is the development of new species.

To be more clear - initially we can have one species, and that species will over time start to live in multiple different environments. As the species starts to adapt to the new environment, its appearance and genetics are gradually changing in order for it to have more advantageous traits to survive in the environment. As the time passes, the changes that will emerge in some members will create a new species, and that process will constantly go on, until extinction that is. So we have one species that is an ancestor of multiple new species, thus the family tree, or rather evolutionary diagram, starts to branch out, and as the time passes, it will branch out more and more and take a bush-like looks.