The Branching "Tree of Life" Analogy

The branching "tree of life" analogy

A) accurately reflects evolution. Once a split occurs, species on different branches evolve absolutely independently.
B) has been discredited because it does not help us understand evolutionary relationships among organisms.
C) does not describe ecological interactions between species, so it should be replaced by the web of life.
D) fails to account for horizontal gene transfer, in which species on different branches exchange genes.