26.3 Shared characters are used to construct phylogenetic trees

Question 1

20) Generally, within a lineage, the largest number of shared derived characters should be
found among two organisms that are members of the same
A) kingdom.
B) class.
C) domain.
D) family.
E) order.

Answer 1

D) family.

Question 2

28) Which of the following is not true of all horizontally oriented phylogenetic trees, where
time advances to the right?
A) Each branch point represents a point in absolute time.
B) Organisms represented at the base of such trees are ancestral to those represented at higher levels.
C) The more branch points that occur between two taxa, the more divergent their DNA sequences should be.
D) The common ancestor represented by the rightmost branch point existed more recently in time than the common ancestors represented at branch points located to the left.
E) The more branch points there are, the more taxa are likely to be represented.

Answer 2

A) Each branch point represents a point in absolute time.

Question 3

29) Ultimately, which of these serves as the basis for both the principle of maximum parsimony
and the principle that shared complexity indicates homology rather than analogy?
A) the laws of thermodynamics
B) Boyleʹs law
C) the laws of probability
D) chaos theory
E) Hutchinsonʹs law

Answer 3

C) the laws of probability

Question 4

30) Shared derived characters are most likely to be found in taxa that are
A) paraphyletic.
B) polyphyletic.
C) monophyletic.

Answer 4

C) monophyletic.

Question 5

31) A taxon, all of whose members have the same common ancestor, is
A) paraphyletic.
B) polyphyletic.
C) monophyletic.

Answer 5

C) monophyletic.

Question 6

32) The term that is most appropriately associated with clade is
A) paraphyletic.
B) polyphyletic.
C) monophyletic.

Answer 6

C) monophyletic.

Question 7

33) If birds are excluded from the class Reptilia, the term that consequently describes the class
Reptilia is
A) paraphyletic.
B) polyphyletic.
C) monophyletic.

Answer 7

A) paraphyletic.

Question 8

34) If the eukaryotic condition arose, independently, several different times during
evolutionary history, and if ancestors of these different lineages are extant and are classified
in the domain Eukarya, then the domain Eukarya would be
A) paraphyletic.
B) polyphyletic.
C) monophyletic.

Answer 8

B) polyphyletic.

Question 9

35) When using a cladistic approach to systematics, which of the following is considered most
important for classification?
A) shared primitive characters
B) analogous primitive characters
C) shared derived characters
D) the number of homoplasies
E) overall phenotypic similarity

Answer 9

C) shared derived characters

Question 10

36) The four-chambered hearts of birds and the four-chambered hearts of mammals evolved
independently of each other. If one were unaware of this independence, then one might
logically conclude that
A) the birds were the first to evolve a 4-chambered heart.
B) birds and mammals are more distantly related than is actually the case.
C) early mammals possessed feathers.
D) the common ancestor of birds and mammals had a four-chambered heart.
E) birds and mammals should be placed in the same family.

Answer 10

D) the common ancestor of birds and mammals had a four-chambered heart.

Question 11

37) Phylogenetic hypotheses (such as those represented by phylogenetic trees) are strongest
when
A) they are based on amino acid sequences from homologous proteins, as long as the genes that code for such proteins contain no introns.
B) each clade is defined by a single derived character.
C) they are supported by more than one kind of evidence, such as when fossil evidence corroborates molecular evidence.
D) they are accepted by the foremost authorities in the field, especially if they have won Nobel Prizes.
E) they are based on a single DNA sequence that seems to be a shared derived sequence.

Answer 11

C) they are supported by more than one kind of evidence, such as when fossil evidence corroborates molecular evidence.

Question 12

38) Cladograms (a type of phylogenetic tree) constructed from evidence from molecular
systematics are based on similarities in
A) morphology.
B) the pattern of embryological development.
C) biochemical pathways.
D) habitat and lifestyle choices.
E) mutations to homologous genes.

Answer 12

E) mutations to homologous genes.

Question 13

66) Regarding these sequence homology data, the principle of maximum parsimony would be
applicable in
A) distinguishing introns from exons.
B) determining degree of sequence homology.
C) selecting appropriate genes for comparison among species.
D) inferring evolutionary relatedness from the number of sequence differences.

Answer 13

D) inferring evolutionary relatedness from the number of sequence differences.