Exam 26: Phylogeny and the Tree of Life

From the above figure, what is true of Dryopithecus and Ouranopithecus? 1. They were great apes. 2. They shared a common ancestor more recently with the orangutans than with the other great apes. 3. They appear to be part of a polytomy. 4. Their closest common ancestor with all of the extant great apes is the one they share with the orangutans. 5. They were about as different from each other genetically as humans are different from chimps.

Based on this tree, which statement is not correct?

If organisms A, B, and C belong to the same class but to different orders and if organisms D, E, and F belong to the same order but to different families, which of the following pairs of organisms would be expected to show the greatest degree of structural homology?

Use the following figure to answer the questions below. Humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans are members of a clade called the great apes, which shared a common ancestor about 18 million years ago. Gibbons and siamangs comprise a clade called the lesser apes. Tree-branch lengths indicate elapsed time. -Together, the lesser apes and great apes shared a common ancestor most recently with other members of their

What can be properly inferred from the above figure?

The lakes of northern Minnesota are home to many similar species of damselflies of the genus Enallagma that have apparently undergone speciation from ancestral stock since the last glacial retreat about 10 000 years ago. Sequencing which of the following would probably be most useful in sorting out evolutionary relationships among these closely related species?

A monophyletic group

Which individual would make the worst systematist? One who is uncomfortable with the

The following questions refer to the description below. You are taking an art class and your instructor asks you to draw several animals, including a shark, a dolphin, and a penguin. As you draw these animals you notice that they all have a fusiform shape; in other words, they are tapered at both ends. Despite their similar shape, you are well aware that the shark is a fish, the dolphin is a mammal, and the penguin is a bird. -What is the best explanation for the similarities and differences in these three species?

When it acts upon a gene, which of the following processes consequently makes that gene an accurate molecular clock?

Which of the following is (are)problematic when the goal is to construct phylogenies that accurately reflect evolutionary history?

The importance of computers and of computer software to modern cladistics is most closely linked to advances in

The various taxonomic levels (namely, genera, classes, etc.)of the hierarchical classification system differ from each other on the basis of

Morphologically, species A is very similar to four other species, B-E. Yet the nucleotide sequence deep within an intron in a gene shared by all five of these eukaryotic species is quite different in species A compared to that of the other four species when we study the nucleotides present at each position. -If the sequence of species A in the above figure differs from that of the other four species due to simple misalignment, then what should the computer software find when it compares the sequence of species A to those of the other four species?

Which of the following pairs is incorrectly matched?

Which of the following pairs are the best examples of homologous structures?

Three living species X, Y, and Z share a common ancestor T, as do extinct species U and V. A grouping that consists of species T, X, Y, and Z (but not U or V)makes up

A researcher wants to determine the genetic relatedness of several breeds of dog (Canis lupus familiaris). The researcher should compare homologous sequences of this type of biochemical-________-which can be described as ________.

Since all organisms share a common ancestor, it comes as no surprise that some characteristics are shared while others are not. If we consider the backbone and feathers, respectively, of birds, we can say that the former is a ________ while the latter are a ________.

Linnaeus was a "fixist" who believed that species remained fixed in the form in which they had been created. Linnaeus would have been uncomfortable with