Week 1 Teach It - Team 10 Subset E

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Oregon State University, Corvallis *

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Biology

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May 21, 2024

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Week 1 - "Teach it!" Group 10: Subset E 1. How are phylogenies useful for classifying organisms? Phylogenies are useful in classifying organisms as you can trace back common ancestors by looking into traits of features of a species to determine relatedness of each species to other species. 2. Why are they useful for asking scientific questions about the evolutionary history of traits and/or organisms? The use of phylogenies is an organized way to look at relatedness of different species and conditions of their environments as well as tracing specific traits and where those traits evolved from. Phylogenies allow the relatedness to be examined using synaphomorphies to draw the progression of evolution that has occurred over time. They also useful in examining homoplasy and secondarily lost characteristics that have occurred in organisms throughout time. 3. What are “reasons for uncertainty” when inferring phylogenies? In other words, what can happen over evolutionary time that might cause us to “get it wrong” – i.e. make the wrong inference about relatedness among taxa? a. Divergence - Divergence can make it difficult to decipher if or how closely two organisms are related due to the two species having drastically different adaptations or traits. b. Convergence - Two species that do not have a common ancestor can have many similar traits. c. Extinction - Extinction can create gaps in our knowledge of how evolution has occurred through time which can sometimes be important links between different taxa. d. Secondary Loss/Reversal of Characters - Secondarily lost traits or reversals can be a reason for uncertainty when inferring phylogenies. Secondarily lost traits are derived traits that are lost which can make taxa in an in-group appear to be distantly related when in fact they are not. 4. For each of the “reasons for uncertainty” when inferring phylogenies: can you give an example from vertebrates a. Divergence - The arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) and the Fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) are an example of divergence. The arctic fox has adapted to have thick fur that is white in the winter to help it keep warm and camouflaged with the snow in its arctic biome. The fennec fox has developed to be much smaller and have large ears to help with excess body heat in its dessert biome, and has a sandy colored fur coat to blend in with the sand. b. Convergence – Cephalopods and vertebrates have very similar eye structure. c. Extinction - Tiktaalik, which were an aquatic fishlike animal, have been extinct for a long time so very little is known about their lineage. d. Secondary Loss/Reversal of Characters - Whales and dolphins are a good example as they did have ancestors that make it on to land and then those ancestors went back to the water and overtime became the whales and dolphins.
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