•
Any group of species we designate or name is called a
taxon (
humans, primates,
mammals, vertebrates)
•
Any taxon that consists of all the evolutionary descendants of a common ancestor
is called a
clade.
•
Two species that are each other’s closest relatives are called
sister species-
similarly two clades that are each other’s closest relatives are called
sister clades.
•
Systematics is the study of biodiversity
•
4 billion year evolutionary history of life is known as the “ Tree of Life.”
•
1.7 million species have been formally described and named
•
A trait that differs from its ancestral form is called a
derived
trait
•
Derived traits
that are shared among a group of organisms, and are viewed as
evidence of the common ancestry of the group, are called
synapomorphies.
•
Convergent evolution
and
evolutionary reversal
are two sources of
homoplasy.
•
A
shared derived trait,
used as the basis for inferring a
monophletic
group, is
called a
synapomorphy.
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- Spring '07
- O'Neal
- Cladistics, Evolution, Phylogenetics, maximum likelihood method
-
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