Evolution
4th Edition
ISBN: 9781605356051
Author: Douglas Futuyma, Mark Kirkpatrick
Publisher: SINAUER
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Chapter 18, Problem 3PDT
Summary Introduction
To explain: The reason for the wide distribution of ratities based on several phylogenetic studies.
Introduction: Ratities are a group of flightless birds. They originate from the Gondwana region. Most of them are now extinct. Cassowaries and rheas are examples of living ratities, which are found in Australia and New Guinea, and South America, respectively. Being so scattered, their phylogenetic studies have been very complicated.
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Transitional species are species important in helping scientists determine the evolutionary path that species have taken over long periods of time.
Lobe-finned fishes are the ancestors of amphibians and have fossils that are found in rocks that are at least 380 million years old. Fossils of the oldest amphibian-like vertebrate animals with true legs and lungs are found in rocks that are approximately 363 million years old.
Paleontologists have found a sample of rock that is approximately 370 million years old which contains what seems to be a link between lobe-finned fishes and amphibians.
Which of the following is a characteristic that you would not expect to see in this transitional fossil?
Question options:
Skeletal structures that indicate the development of legs.
An intermediate structure between lungs and gills.
Teeth that are intermediate to the lobe-finned fishes and amphibians.
A neck that is more flexible than lobe-finned fishes.
Four Caribbean islands with similar environmental conditions have three different species of anole lizards with specific ecological morphotypes.
Lizards
Morphotypes
Grass lizards
Long tails
Canopy lizards
Large toe pads
Twig lizards
Short legs
Researchers devised two phylogenetic trees to represent two different hypotheses about how the lizards may have evolved. The first hypothesis is that the different body types evolved repeatedly and independently of each island. The second suggests that each morphotype evolved once and spread to different islands.
Which of the following statements best explains which type of data the researchers should use to test these two hypotheses, and which phylogenetic tree correctly shows the evolutionary relationships among anoles?
Analyzing DNA samples from the anoles would likely show that phylogenetic tree B is correct since it is likely that each body type evolved once and spread to different islands.
Analyzing the…
What is the function of including an outgroup in this phylogeny? After all, the point of the phylogeny is to see which Galapagos finch species are most closely related to each other.
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