26 Flashcards
shared ancestral character
character that originated in an ancestor of the taxon
shared derived character
an evolutionary novelty unique to a particular clade
hair is an example of this in mammals
Phylogenies are inferred from _____ and _______
morphological and molecular data
clade
a monophyletic group that includes an ancestral species and all of its descendant s
a group of taxa that includes an ancestor and all its descendants
systematics
establishing degrees of relatedness (evolutionary relationships) among both living and extinct species.
phylogeny
the evolutionary history of a taxonomic group
evolutionary history of species or groups of species
Phylogenetic tree
a graphical summary of this history
homologies
Phenotypic and genetic similarities due to shared ancestry
analogy
similarity due to convergent evolution
Cladistics
an approach to systematics where common ancestry is the primary criterion used to classify organisms
taxonomy
how organisms are named and classified
sister taxa
groups of organisms that share an immediate common ancestor that is not shared by any other group (chimps and humans)
• Sister taxa usually refer to the tips
Monophyletic
“single tribe”- signifying that it consists of an ancestral species and all of its descendants
Paraphyletic
“beside the tribe”- consists of an ancestral species and some but not all of its descendants
Polyphyletic
“many tribes”- includes distantly related species but DOES NOT include their most recent common ancestor