Dirksen Bio final

Based on the tree, which statment is correct?

• Salamanders are a sister group to the group containing lizards,goats, and humans.

• Goats are more closely related to salamanders than to humans.

• The human lineage is a basal taxon.

• Salamanders are as closely related to lizards as to humans.

Carolus Linnaeus believed that species remained fixed in the form in which they had been created. Linnaeus would have been uncomfortable with----

• a hierarchical classification scheme

• phylogenies

• nested, increasingly inclusive categories of organisms

• taxonomy

The various taxonomic levels (for example, phyla, genera, classes) of the hierarchical classification system differ from each other on the basis of

• the relative genome sizes of the organisms assigned to each

• morphological characters that are applicable to all organisms

• their inclusiveness

• how widely assigned to each are distributed throughout the environment

Imagine that a phylogeny was developed for a group of mammals based on bone structure. Which of the following statements would be a reasonable prediction about a phylogeny for the same group of species based on similarity and differences in the structure of a particular enzyme?

• No prediction could be made

• The same phylogeny would be unlikely

• The same phylogeny would be predicted

• The amino acid sequence would be identical in all species

The common ancestor of birds and mammals were very early (stem) reptiles, which would almost certainly possessed three-chambered hearts. Birds and mammals however are alike in having four-chambered hearts. The four-chambered hearts of birds and mammals are best described as

• structural homologies

• structural analogies

• vestiges

• the result of shared ancestry

Some molecular data place the giant panda in the bear family (Ursidae) but place the lesser panda in the raccoon family (Procyonidae). If the molecular data best reflect the evolutionary history of these two groups, the the morphological similarities of these two species is most likely due to---

• Possession of analogous (convergent) traits

• possession of shared primitive characters

• the inheritance of acquired characteristics

• sexual selection

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

• owl wing and hornet wing

• eyelessness in the Australian mole and eyelessness in the North American mole

• bones in the bat wing and bones in the human forelimb

• bat wing and bird wing

To apply the principle of maximum parsimony to construction of a phylogenetic tree,

• choose the tree that assumes all evolutionary changes are equally probable

• choose the tree that represents the fewest evolutionary changes, either in DNA sequences or morphology

• choose the tree with the fewest branch points

• choose the tree in which the branch points are based on as many shared derived characters as possible

In a comparison of birds and mammals, having four limbs is

• a shared derived character

• a character useful for distinguishing birds from mammals

• an example of analogy rather than homology

• a shared ancestral character

If the figure is an accurate depiction of releatedness, then which of the following should be an accurate statement?

• The species present at position 4 is ancestral to species E, but not species D.

• Species C is more closely related to species B than D is to B

• If all species depicted her make up a taxon, this taxon is monophyletic

• The species present at position 3 is ancestral to C,D and E.