Final answer:
Phylogenies are utilized for various scientific purposes, including inferring traits of extinct organisms, estimating evolutionary relationships, guiding taxonomic naming, and determining homologous traits, but not for predicting future speciation events.
Step-by-step explanation:
Phylogenies are useful for a variety of scientific endeavors. However, when it comes to predicting the next speciation events, this is not typically something that phylogenies are used for.
Phylogenies are based on evolutionary connections and use homologous characteristics to build the phylogenetic trees, in contrast to analogous traits, which can be misleading when determining evolutionary relationships.
In addition, phylogenies help to decipher accurate phylogenies, eliminate analogous traits, and locate homoplasies (traits that have similar appearances in different species but are not due to shared ancestry).
As graphical representations of evolutionary history, phylogenetic trees and cladograms can represent traits derived or lost due to evolution. This is useful for inferring traits of extinct organisms, estimating evolutionary relationships, guiding taxonomic group naming, and determining if traits are homologous.
Moreover, cladistics and the use of cladograms help in distinguishing between ancestral and derived characteristics, giving a clearer understanding of the relationships between different groups.