Evolutionary Relationships Flashcards
1
Q
clade
A
a group of organisms that includes an ancestor and all of its descendants
2
Q
cladistics
A
a method of classifying species based on evolutionary relationships
3
Q
cladogram
A
a branching diagram that depicts evolutionary relationships among species
4
Q
derived characteristics
A
characteristics that appear in recent parts of a lineage, but not in its ancestors
5
Q
molecular clock
A
a tool that uses DNA comparisons to estimate the amount of time that two species have been evolving independently
6
Q
node
A
a point in a cladogram where a single ancestral lineage breaks into two or more descendant lineages
7
Q
phylogenetic tree
A
a chart that depicts an evolutionary relationship among organisms
8
Q
taxa
A
any named groups of organisms, whether they form a clade or not (singular: taxon)
