How does homoplasy affect cladistic analysis?Multiple choice question.It causes organisms to seem closely related when they are not.It has no effect because the homoplastic characters are exhibited by distant common ancestors.It causes organisms to seem even more distantly related than they are.
Question
How does homoplasy affect cladistic analysis?Multiple choice question.It causes organisms to seem closely related when they are not.It has no effect because the homoplastic characters are exhibited by distant common ancestors.It causes organisms to seem even more distantly related than they are.
Solution
The correct answer is: "It causes organisms to seem closely related when they are not."
Homoplasy refers to the occurrence of similar traits in different species that are not closely related. This can occur due to convergent evolution, where different species independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches.
In cladistic analysis, which is a method of classifying organisms based on the time sequence of their common ancestry, homoplasy can cause confusion. This is because it can make organisms appear more closely related than they actually are, based on the presence of similar traits that were not inherited from a common ancestor, but rather evolved independently.
Similar Questions
How does homoplasy arise in DNA sequences?Multiple choice question.Gene duplication leads to diversification of two similar genes in the same species.Mutation of the same nucleotide base occurs independently in two lineages.The mutation rate is increased when natural selection is affecting a character.
How is character polarity assigned for cladistics using outgroup comparison?Multiple choice question.A character is derived if it is shared with the outgroup.A character that is shared with the outgroup cannot be used to assign polarity.A character is homoplastic if it is shared with the outgroup.A character is ancestral if it is shared with the outgroup
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In cladistics, the shared characteristic between humans and octopi of complex camera-like eyes, with an image-forming lens, is a case of which of the following? Plesiomorphy Homoplasy Exaptation Monophyly Homology
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