Quiz 2 Review: Brief History of Life on Earth and Phylogenetics

Fill-in-the-blank practice flashcards covering the Quiz 2 review concepts on the history of life on Earth and phylogenetics.

In the study of the history of life, the technique used to determine the age of materials based on radioactive decay is known as __________ dating.

radioactive

The assemblage of ancient soft-bodied organisms representing early multicellular life is known as the __________ Fauna.

Ediacaran

The fossil deposit that provides important early animal fossils distinct from the Ediacaran Fauna is the __________ Shale.

Burgess

The study guide highlights the appearance of the first land-dwelling __________.

tetrapods

The review questions ask how many mass extinction events occurred in the last __________ million years.

$$500$$

A diagram representing the evolutionary relationships among species or groups is a __________ tree.

phylogenetic

Points on a phylogenetic tree representing lineage splitting events are called __________.

nodes

Trees that indicate the common ancestor at the base and specify the evolutionary direction are __________ trees.

rooted

A tree where branch lengths explicitly represent time is called a __________.

chronogram

A phylogenetic tree where branch lengths reflect the amount of evolutionary character state change is a __________.

phylogram

A tree showing only the topological evolutionary relationships without specific branch length meanings is a __________.

cladogram

A group consisting of an ancestor and all of its descendants is a __________ group.

monophyletic

A group that includes a common ancestor but excludes some descendant species is a __________ group.

paraphyletic

A group containing taxa from different ancestral origins without including their recent common ancestor is a __________ group.

polyphyletic

A monophyletic group composed of a common ancestor and all its descendants is also called a __________.

clade

Two species or clades that are each other's closest evolutionary relatives are referred to as __________ species or clades.

sister

A taxon used in phylogenetic analysis to determine the direction of character state change is called an __________.

outgroup

The principle that prefers the phylogenetic tree topology requiring the fewest evolutionary changes is called __________.

parsimony

A shared derived character state that is informative for defining a clade is a __________.

synapomorphy

A trait shared by multiple species due to convergent evolution or reversal rather than shared ancestry is a __________.

homoplasy

Traits inherited from a common ancestor are homologous, whereas traits resulting from independent evolution are __________.

analogous

A tree used to summarize common relationships across multiple equally parsimonious trees is a __________ tree.

consensus

The phenomenon where data points from related species are not statistically independent due to shared ancestry is phylogenetic __________.

non-independence

Phylogenetic methods can be used to investigate patterns of __________ transmission.

HIV