b) describe the trends/ relationship observed in the cladogram below of 5 mammal
ID: 205708 • Letter: B
Question
b) describe the trends/ relationship observed in the cladogram below of 5 mammals species based genetic data
c) what is the biological interpretation of both cladograms above? which is more accurate, the morphological or genetic data? do they describe the same evolutionary relationship? if not why?
d) describe the trends/relationship of the bear subspecies cladogram below. do you think the cladogram is accurate? or do you think it'll be more accurate if we're using morphological?
Domestic dog Canis familiaris Domestic cat Felis catus Virginia opossum Didelphis virginiana Domestic horse Equus caballus 12(1) White-tailed deer Odocolous virginianus 6(3)Explanation / Answer
a) This cladogram is based on morphological features and the major observations are listed below.
b) The cladogram based on DNA sequences provide a different perspective of the evolutionary relationship between these 5 mammals.
c) A common interpretation of both the cladograms is that the domestic cat is evolutionary related to domestic dog according to the 1st cladogram but evolutionary distantwith respect to the other 4 mammals mentioned in the second cladogram.
The cladogram based on the genetic data is more credible and accurate than the one based on morphological data.
No, the two cladograms describe different evolutionary relationships.
This is because 1) the genetic material or DNA tends to remain conserved in a species and accumulates mutations in the common ancestor in points of divergence. This is based on the pattern of conservation of nucleotide sequence within a species or amongst different organisms. The genetic data is therefore specific to that animal. While morphological traits are simply a manifestation of gene expression and does depend on the relative expression levels, penetrance and epigenetics. It therefore varies among individuals of a species. Moreover morphological inferences are usually binary, presence or absence. Therefore any injury or physical deformity will lead to a biased data interpretation. This inaccuracy is completely avoided with genetic data, where we can have a quantitative measure of percentage identity and percentage similarity..
d) the subspecies kermodei,altifrontalis, vancouveri and carlottae can form a separate group from the two member group by the subspecies americanus and cinnamomum.
The cladogram does not appear accurate even though it is based on the genetic data of the subspecies. It should be repated, as it appears that each subspecies can have multiple common ancestors which is practically impossible.
Morphological data based cladogram although will not help, as subspecies will turn out to be sharing morphological similar/identical traits. So, the observations will be inclined towards inferring that they were all derived from a common ancestor, a notion which needs clarification from their respective genetic data.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.