The law of parsimony suggests that traits that…are the best ones for phylogenetic trees.

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The question asks about the law of parsimony in choosing traits for phylogenetic trees.
Option a: 'result from parallel evolution' — This would imply multiple separate lineages independently developing similar traits, which increases complexity and homoplasy, not what parsimony favors. Therefore this option is not aligned with parsimony principles.
Option b: 'evolved independently multiple times by convergent evolution' — Similar to parallel evolution, convergent evolution creates analogous traits in different lineages, adding more evolutionary events to explain, which parsimony avoids. Hence this is incorrect.
Option c: 'evolved one time' — Parsimony selects traits that require the fewest evolutionary changes; a trait that evolved only once across the tree minimizes the number of changes and is thus the simplest explanation, making this the correct choice.
Option d: 'are homoplasies' — Homoplasies are traits that arise independently in separate lineages (convergence or parallelism) and would require extra changes to fit, increasing tree complexity; parsimony treats such traits as less parsimonious, so this option is incorrect.
In sum, parsimony favors traits that can be explained with the smallest number of evolutionary events, which corresponds to traits that evolved only once. This keeps the implied history of character state changes as simple as possible.

BIO 181 (001&002) FALL 2025 FA25: Exam 3: Phylogeny & Biodiversity (Breathe in, breath out)

The law of parsimony suggests that traits that…are the best ones for phylogenetic trees.

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BIO 181 (001&002) FALL 2025 FA25: Exam 3: Phylogeny & Biodiversity (Breathe in, breath out)

The law of parsimony suggests that traits that…are the best ones for phylogenetic trees.

查看解析

登录即可查看完整答案

类似问题

Please use this image to answer the following questions. 1: The sister taxa to humans. ____ 2: The lizard is most closely related to ____. ____ 3: The outgroup ____

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Use a specific one-word answer to receive credit.Ideally, when making phylogenetic trees, the taxa in the tree should be ___ .Please double check your spelling to make sure the word is spelled correctly. Thank you!

Gorillas’ bodies have hair, and their closest living relatives also have hair on their bodies. What type of characteristic is this?

Which part of the phylogenetic tree is the red arrow pointing to? Click Here if you are unable to see the image (opens in new window)

There is more than one correct way to show relationships using a phylogenetic tree. Three of the four trees displayed below show the same relationship between species A, B, C, D, and E. Which tree shows a different relationship?Tree 1 Tree 2 Tree 3 Tree 4

The opposable thumb of primates (lemurs, monkeys, apes (including humans)) is a / an ___ of all primates.*Opposable thumb is a thumb (first digit / finger of the hand) that can be placed opposite the fingers of the same hand.

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Please use this image to answer the following questions. 1: The sister taxa to humans. 2: The lizard is most closely related to . 3: The outgroup