According to the tree of life, members of a common ancestral group that stop interbreeding form separate stems or sister taxons. For example, chimpanzees and human beings are sister taxa. There are three main designations of phyletic, or race and tribe, groupings: monophyletic, paraphyletic, and polyphyletic .
Are humans a paraphyletic group?
A is correct. Since we are considered all types of organisms, this group is considered monophyletic . If we were to consider only some, such as just birds and turtles, and exclude reptiles, the group would be considered paraphyletic.
Which group of organisms is polyphyletic?
Polyphyletic taxon : A group composed of a collection of organisms in which the most recent common ancestor
Is it possible for a species to be polyphyletic?
All individuals in a monophyletic species have a common ancestor (otherwise, the species is polyphyletic) that is shared by individuals of no other species (otherwise it is paraphyletic). ... There are biological and nonbiological reasons for species appearing as non-monophyletic in a gene tree (Fig. 1).
What is an example of polyphyletic?
Polyphyletic groups are formed when two lineages convergently evolve similar character states. ... An example of a polyphyletic group is bats and birds : both have wings, but they have evolved separately.
What is polyphyletic origin?
Etymology. The term polyphyly, or polyphyletic, derives from the two ancient greek words πολύς (polús), meaning “many, a lot of”, and φῦλον (phûlon), meaning “genus, species”, and refers to the fact that a polyphyletic group includes organisms (e.g., genera, species) arising from multiple ancestral sources.
Why is it bad for a group to be polyphyletic?
Polyphyletic groupings tend to be problematic to the study of systematics because they confound the guiding principle of parsimony , which states that the simplest explanation that accounts for all of the scientific evidence and information must be true.
What makes something Polyphyletic?
adjective. Taxonomic groups that have similar character states that descends from one or more ancestral lineage . Supplement. Polyphyletic does not embrace the common ancestor of the members of the group wherein those two members have two or more separate origins.
What is Polyphyletic theory?
: a theory in physiology: the several cellular elements of the blood originate in two or more distinct stem cells — compare monophyletic theory.
What is the meaning of Polyphyletic in English?
: of, relating to, or derived from more than one ancestral stock specifically : relating to or being a taxonomic group that includes members (such as genera or species) from different ancestral lineages.
What is Apomorphic character?
: a specialized trait or character that is unique to a group or species : a character state (such as the presence of feathers) not present in an ancestral form In this case, white flowers are a derived condition, an apomorphy, and red flowers are the ancestral condition.—
What Cladistics means?
: a system of biological taxonomy that defines taxa uniquely by shared characteristics not found in ancestral groups and uses inferred evolutionary relationships to arrange taxa in a branching hierarchy such that all members of a given taxon have the same ancestors.
Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last common ancestor of those groups. The cladistic term for the same phenomenon is homoplasy
What is a Plesiomorphic trait?
The term apomorphy means a specialized or derived character state; plesiomorphy refers to a primitive or ancestral trait . An same as autapomorphy is a derived trait that is unique to one group, while a same as synapomorphy is a derived trait shared by two or more groups.
