Taxonomy and Phylogeny of Animals

Question 1

Phylogeny

Answer 1

history of the development of species or another group
- phylon, race, genesis, decent

Question 2

Homology

Answer 2

character similarity resulting from common ancestry

Question 3

Homoplasy

Answer 3

non-homologous character similarity, misrepresent common ancestry

Question 4

characters

Answer 4

organismal features used to construct a phylogeny (or evolutionary tree)

Question 5

cladistics

Answer 5

evaluation of information for tree building and classification

Question 6

cladogram

Answer 6

phylogenetic diagram based on cladistic analysis

Question 7

clade

Answer 7

group of organisms that includes most recent common ancestor and all members and descendants of that ancestor
- lizard,monkey and bear have eggs with amnion and therefore form a clade

Question 8

polarity

Answer 8

ancestral/descendant relationship among different states of a character (eg., presence or absence of vertebral column)

Question 9

outgroup comparison

Answer 9

examines the polarity of a character state
- amniotic egg (whether an egg has an amnion or not)

Question 10

synamorphy

Answer 10

amniotic egg of lizard, monkey and bear

Question 11

comparative morphology

Answer 11

shapes and sizes of organismal structures, including developmental origins.
(ie., skull and limb bones, the structure of integument-scales, hair, feathers)
- LIVING and FOSSIL RECORDS

Question 12

comparative biochemistry

Answer 12

gene and protein sequencing
(eg., mtDNA (fast change Dna), rRNA (slow change Dna))
- LIVING and SOME FOSSIL RECORDS

Question 13

comparative cytology

Answer 13

numbers, shapes and sizes of chromosomes and associated material
- LIVING MATERIAL ONLY