StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Phylogenetic relationships of a group of organisms - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
During the course of evolution, life forms have evolved from the most primitive protozoa to the highly organized plant and animal species which possess certain features and characteristics which point towards a common basis for the origin of life. The basic physiological…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.7% of users find it useful
Phylogenetic relationships of a group of organisms
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Phylogenetic relationships of a group of organisms"

Phylogenetic Relationship of a Group of Organisms During the of evolution, life forms have evolved from the most primitive protozoa to the highly organized plant and animal species which possess certain features and characteristics which point towards a common basis for the origin of life. The basic physiological mechanisms follow similar patterns in all life forms but the morphological as well as genetic uniqueness of each species show how differentiation occurred over the span of history. The common traits and characteristics within species, genera and phyla can be related and studied through phylogenetic studies and by cladistics which is a measurement tool for comparing the evolutionary changes and differences between different species.

Phylogenetic analysis by means of cladistics uses shared and derived characteristics as the only criteria for grouping within a genus or species. A shared character is the common feature for all the species being evaluated and a derived character is a feature that evolved only within the group being studied.Construction of a CladogramThe hypothetical cladistic analysis will include an organism which is distantly related to the organisms within the group being studied. In the example, this organism is known as the out-group and serves as the starting point for comparison with the other organisms being evaluated.

In our example, the earthworm represents this out-group. The other organisms in the group are an eel, a salmon fish, a Lizard, a Turtle and a Lion. In the character table, the organisms are placed sequentially in a row and their characteristics are listed in a column on the left (Table). A character lacking in an organism is scored as ‘0’ and the presence of a particular trait is scored as ‘1’ as shown in the Table.Table: Character TableTrait No.Earthworm (Out-Group)EelSalmon FishLizardTortoiseLion1Hair0000012 Amniotic Egg0000113 Four walking legs0001114Jaws0011115Vertebral Column011111 When the characters or traits are displayed in the form of a tree, it represents the cladistic hypothesis of the evolutionary relationship between the organisms under study.

The tree showing the above cladistic analysis is as follows:Earthworm Eel Salmon Fish Lizard Tortoise Lion 5 4 3 2 1CladogramAlthough a cladogram does not indicate the strength of a derived character or even its evolutionary importance, it does emphasize the sequence in which the derived characters arise from a central phylogenetic tree.

In the above example, the earthworm lacks all the listed characteristics while the lion which is at the top of the evolutionary ladder in this analysis possesses all.References:Basics of Cladistic Analysis, Avaialble online at: http://www.gwu.edu/~clade/faculty/lipscomb/Cladistics.pdfClos L.M., What is Cladistics?, Online article available at: http://www.fossilnews.com/1996/cladistics.htmlReconstructing trees: A simple example, Educational material available at: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/phylogenetics_07

Read More
Tags
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Phylogenetic relationships of a group of organisms Essay”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1557400-phylogenetic-relationships-of-a-group-of-organisms
(Phylogenetic Relationships of a Group of Organisms Essay)
https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1557400-phylogenetic-relationships-of-a-group-of-organisms.
“Phylogenetic Relationships of a Group of Organisms Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1557400-phylogenetic-relationships-of-a-group-of-organisms.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Phylogenetic relationships of a group of organisms

The Evolution of the Eukaryotic Cell

An author of the following paper shall discuss the three theories regarding the evolution of eukaryotic organisms....  The levels of oxygen in the atmosphere produced a fatal environment in which anaerobic organisms needed to evolve methods of coping with the presence of oxygen.... The beneficial relationship between the organisms evolved in the same manner as that of mitochondria and chloroplasts.... According to the endosymbiotic theory, these originated as prokaryotic organisms, which were engulfed by a larger prokaryote through phagocytosis....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Archaea as a Group of Single-Celled Microorganisms

In the report, it is stated that based on their ssrRNA, Archaea have three phylogenetic groups namely Crenarchaeota, Euryarchaeota and Korarchaeota.... asing the argument using the prokaryotic homolog only, then the phylogenetic tree can actually prove that there is a very close relationship between Archaea and Gram-positive bacteria....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Systematics and Reconstructing Phylogeny

Evolutionary phylogeny is the evolutionary history of a group of organisms derived from a common ancestor.... There are three groups; monophyletic taxon which has a common ancestor and all of its descendants, paraphyletic taxon which has a common ancestor but not all of its descendants and polyphyletic taxon which has a group of species with different common ancestors.... After scientific studying of organisms is done, taxonomy is used to classify, name and describe organisms....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Biological Aspects Of The Evolution

The ancestral character is normally inherited from a distant ancestor while the derived character is one that has experienced fresh evolutionary transformation in a group.... It gives information about a visual of a fish phylogenetic tree and looks at a common aspect that connects the organisms from one level of development to the next.... hellip; One perspective of interpreting this phylogenetic tree is the use of character to define the relationships amongst the organisms....
1 Pages (250 words) Case Study

Applied Phylogenetics

With regards to the cladogram on five species using morphological data, the fish is the outlier group and has the least in common with the other species.... This work called "Applied phylogenetic" describes using a cladogram, which can be produced using either of three characteristics that are genes, proteins, and morphology....
6 Pages (1500 words) Lab Report

Biological Anthropology

A phylogenetic tree represents the evolutionary relationship that exists among sets of organisms.... cladograms have clades that are groups of organisms and their ancestors (Marks 90).... However, the ancestor might be lacking some of the characteristics of these organisms.... It shows the processes of adaptive evolution and the development of a variety of sister organisms.... Conversely, a cladogram represents a hypothesis concerning the evolutionary history of a species or group....
8 Pages (2000 words) Assignment

Forensic Immunology: Phylogenesis

The word philogenetics has its origin from the Greek words phyle/phylon meaning race or tribe and geneticos meaning birth- related therefore Philogenetics involves studying how the different groups of organisms are related (for instance populations and species) using data that gives molecular sequence and the data matrices of the morphology.... The diagrams show organisms' inferred relationship and speciation events' order leading from common ancestors to the diversified descendants....
13 Pages (3250 words) Essay

Pros and Cons of Asexual and Sexual Reproduction

a group of deleterious mutants will lead to a greater detriment the fitness of an individual if they acted in an independent manner.... Advantages of parthenogenesis: Enables quick reproduction and colonization No mates are needed During an emergency, organisms can stay alive to produce other organisms Requires less energy and is environmentally friendly Disadvantages There is no diversity Prone to extinction due to struggle for existence organisms have the inability to adapt to environment changes Genetic mutation can be harmful to the offspring Sexual reproduction Advantages Through natural selection, harmful mutations are removed from the population There is variation in offspring which creates diversity It can allow multiple reproductions of offspring Offspring have unique genetics that allows for adaptation Disadvantages Require mating, this needs time and energy The rate of reproduction is slower It is not guaranteed that reproduction will occur Question 2: Why can parthenogenesis in the whiptail skink be considered a degenerate form of reproduction?...
7 Pages (1750 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us