Phylogenetic Analysis

We use fossils to compare and contrast how and organism has evolved over a long period of time and how it has adapted to new changes.

“The main lesson of biogeography is that only evolution can explain the diversity of life on continents and islands.” (Coyne 109).In convergent evolution 3 of the six components discussed in chapter 1 are working together. These 3 components are common ancestry, speciation, and natural selection. If evolution did exist, ancestors of species today that lived in the same place, when dug up, should be fossils that resemble organisms today.

All primates have a common ancestor, from millions of years ago. Go further back, and you will find a common ancestor for all mammals. Then a common ancestor for all vertebrates, then animals, then all life on earth. How closely two organisms are related can be deduced by looking for homologous structures, structures that look similar and have a similar function. This proves that the organisms descended from a common ancestor. Station 1 contained multiple vertebrate skeletons. They all had homologous structures, including a vertebral column and a rib cage. This shows that all vertebrates are related and come from a common ancestor with a

Anatomical Evidence – evidence relating to the structures of organisms and how they have evolved over time and might share a common ancestry.

Corynorhinus townsendii, better known as Townsend’s big-eared bat, is a nocturnal bat native to North America. Found primarily in evergreen forests where caves and rocky outcrops are abundant, these bats are accustomed to a moderate climate. C. townsendii is categorized under the phylum Chordata, which is characterized by organisms that possess a notch cord. More specifically, Townsend’s bat is classified in the class Mamalia, which is characterized by animals that have hair, mammary glands, and the neocortex region of the brain. Class Mamalia encompasses myriad species and organisms, including humans, whales, squirrels, and other types of bats. Townsend’s bat is further

7. Find two examples of convergent evolution among the Caminalcules. This means finding cases where two or more species have a similar characteristic that evolved independently in each lineage. The wings of bats, birds and bees is an example of convergence since the three groups did not inherit the characteristic from their common ancestor. Write your answers in complete sentences (e.g. “Species x and y both have ____ but their most recent common ancestor, z, did not”).

It was an ordinary winter day in the city of Lynn, Massachusetts. As people headed to work and school they looked forward to the adventures the weekend would bring the next day. However, not so far away, Henry Rosario and his wife, Wendy Contreras, waited anxiously in their apartment knowing that the moment that would change their lives forever was near. “As my first daughter it was very painful, scary, and anxious” (Contreras interview). After waiting for what seemed like forever, they decided to go to Salem Hospital. Once they arrived, however, they were told by the doctor that she was not was not ready to deliver yet and was sent back home. At home, Wendy paced around the living room in agony waiting for the moment to come so she could get

New research conducted by Canadian experts at the University of Lethbridge suggests that new behavioral trends are manifesting among primates, which has interesting implications about how the behavior of all animals undergoes its own sort of evolution, including that of human beings. The study shows apparent sex acts on the parts of female, Japanese macaques on sika deer. These acts of interspecies relations were observed in Minoh, Osaka—a city in central Japan. As uncommony documented as interspecies relations can be, they are a known phenomenon, and it’s been observed as early as the Holocene epoch or even the Pliocene epoch by way of the extinct mammoth.

6) Explain how a species place in the Linnaeun Classification system can be used to determine its evolutionary relationship to other species? Use the species of the order Pilosa to illustrate your explanation. The classification of species in this order can be found at http://www.eol.org/pages/1660 Go to this website, on the right side click on the link “see all” right of “Classification”, find the IUCN Red List classification and click on “view in classification”.

Part 2) Explain and evaluate the significance of the evidence given to justify this phylogeny. Using the relationship between jaw bone, size, brain and body weight, etc.

A cladogram is a chart that show similarities through a selected species of organism or completely random organisms. They are basically tree like structures to show similar characteristics. Some of these characteristics may be opposable thumbs, hair, cells, or segmented bodies, although all characters can be used. There are many different names for these such charts: phylogeny, evolutionary tree, phylogenetic tree, and cladogram.(reading trees, 2006) In cladograms, there are clades, a clade is a group of species that shares a common ancestor. Each of these organisms share a common trait or traits with this ancestor. While cladograms show certain similarities between species, there is no defined strength of any of the similarities, thus all must be treated with equal meaning. This can lead to awkward situations of species which seem to bare no resemblance to each other being actually correct. This can show great evidence towards evolution only depending upon the organisms used in such a chart.

In an Evolutionary map, students assume that the closer species are to each other the more similar they are to one another. From my understanding all the species would share a common ancestor, just that some might be closely related to one another. When genes are altered then a branch is added on.

What is convergent evaluation and how can convergent evolution in the past affect the description of fossilized species?

The study of geologically ancient DNA began in 1984 with Russell Higuchi and a handful of other scientists. Hoping to determine whether ancient DNA survived and could be retrieved from samples of preserved soft tissue, they examined samples of dried muscle taken from a museum specimen of the quagga. Their attempts to extract genetic material were successful, and the samples yielded slightly less than 1% of the DNA that would have been yielded by fresh muscle; from this, they successfully sequenced two pieces of mitochondrial DNA (Higuchi and others, 1984).

Science and math allows for a new world of possibility. Intertwine the two, and we can see the world through a new, logical lens. For example, through DNA analysis and extensive research, science reveals the ancestors of mankind and provides solid evidence that all homo sapiens are related— a task once thought impossible. Apply the Transitive Law of mathematics and the result is: “If all organisms in the species are the same, and the group of organisms belonging to Homo sapiens are a species, then all Homo sapiens should be the same.” However, this isn’t the case. War and discrimination still plagues populations worldwide, and it becomes gradually harder to accept those of particular religions as the growing threat of terrorism arises. The