your concept of time is one which puts ancestry front and center as the obvious most important factor, but is in no certain terms the only method of interpretation. there are many other factors, and in fact, that reinterpretation is the point of rhizomatic thinking.

and that's exactly what we see in the article, right? if a species took a path A-B-C-D to exhibit features of D, and another took A-F-G-D and so also exhibits features of D, then isn't there more to the history there than simply genetic change via ancestry over time? there's a reason why convergent evolution is so weird and surprising.

epigenetics, for example, is an interesting manifestation of what sorts of new domains you can explore as you broaden the horizon for asking questions beyond "linear ancestry" or "natural heirarchy" - arborescent vs rhizomatic thinking. blasting out of these constraints is the process of deterritorialization/reterritorialization D&G put forward as necessary and essential.