Deck 4: Taxonomy and Phylogeny of Animals

Question 1

Relative to lizards,the clade consisting of horses and monkeys has two synapomorphies of hair and mammary glands.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Two different taxa are termed sister groups if they share common ancestry with each other more recently than either one does with any other organisms.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

A taxon is paraphyletic if it

A)includes the most recent common ancestor of all members of the group and all of its descendants.
B)includes the most recent common ancestor of all members of the group and some but not all of its descendants.
C)excludes the most recent common ancestor of all members of the group.
D)none of the above

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which of the following distinguishes a phylogenetic tree from a cladogram?

A)It is a branching diagram.
B)It depicts the nested hierarchy of clades within clades.
C)Synapomorphies are needed to construct it.
D)Its structure denotes real lineages that occurred in the evolutionary past.

Question 5

The designation of subspecies status is a firm statement indicating boundaries between the subspecies are distinct.

Question 6

A clade defines a unit of evolutionary common descent that includes the most recent common ancestor of the group and all of that ancestor's descendents.

Question 7

The major difference between evolutionary taxonomy and cladistic taxonomy is that the former accepts polyphyletic groups whereas the latter rejects them.

Question 8

Character states that are found in a study group but are absent from an outgroup are defined as ancestral characters.

Question 9

The principle known as phenetic taxonomy has gained widespread acceptance in animal taxonomy.

Question 10

A taxon is monophyletic if it includes the most recent common ancestor of a group of organisms and some but not all of the descendants of that ancestor.

Question 11

The major criteria used for recognizing taxa in the evolutionary taxonomy are common descent and amount of adaptive evolutionary change.

Question 12

Which of the following terms is not relevant to cladistic systematics?

A)synapomorphy
B)monophyly
C)adaptive zone
D)cladogram

Question 13

Paraphyletic groups are often defined in a negative manner based on the absence of particular traits observed in a related,monophyletic group.

Question 14

The statement that amphibians evolved from fishes is inconsistent with cladistic taxonomy.

Question 15

The family-level classification of anthropoid primates violates the principles of cladistic taxonomy because

A)the Hominidae is not monophyletic.
B)the Pongidae is not monophyletic.
C)the Hominidae is not a valid adaptive zone.
D)the orangutans are closer to humans than to gorillas in violation of their family-level taxonomy.

Question 16

Which of the following is no longer an important criterion for species recognition?

A)common descent
B)smallest distinct grouping of organisms
C)reproductive community
D)possession of defining organismal features

Question 17

The man who developed the present system of classification was

A)Aristotle.
B)Ray.
C)Linnaeus.
D)Darwin.

Question 18

A polyphyletic group does contain the most recent common ancestor of all members of the group but has at least two separate phylogenetic origins.
Multiple Choice Questions

Question 19

Comparative biochemical data are sometimes useful for estimating the ages of different lineages on a phylogenetic tree.

Question 20

According to the binomial system of nomenclature,the Aedes in Aedes vextans refers to the

A)species.
B)genus.
C)family.
D)class.

Question 21

Which of the following concepts of species is most compatible with the goals of cladistic systematics?

A)typological
B)biological
C)evolutionary
D)phylogenetic

Question 22

Which of the following best describes the phylogenetic position of the single-celled eukaryotic organisms?

A)They form a monophyletic phylum,the Protozoa,within the kingdom AmmaliA.
B)They form a monophyletic kingdom,the Protista,separate from the kingdom Animalia.
C)They form a monophyletic group within the Monera.
D)They do not form a valid monophyletic taxon at any level of the Linnaean hierarchy.

Question 23

Which of the following taxa from Whittaker's five-kingdom system is most clearly incompatible with cladistic systematics?

A)Plantae
B)Fungi
C)Animalia
D)Protista

Question 24

A derived character shared by members of a clade is formally called a __________________.

Question 25

A taxonomic rank above the Linnaean kingdom used to denote the Eucarya,Bacteria,and Archaea is the _______________.

Question 26

"A single lineage of ancestor-descendant populations which maintains its identity from other such lineages and which has its own evolutionary tendencies and historical fate" describes the _______________.

Question 27

A branching diagram whose branches represent real lineages that occurred in the evolutionary past is called a ___________.

Question 28

Evolutionary taxonomy places Hominidae as a family separate from Pongidae because

A)they do share the same adaptive zone.
B)they are a different grade of organization.
C)they have entered a new adaptive zone,but not through a fundamental change in structure and behavior.
D)none of the above

Question 29

The statement "mammals evolved from reptiles" implies _______________ groupings in our current state of taxonomy.

Question 30

To a cladist,the family Hominidae

A)recognizes that chimpanzees,gorillas,orangutans,and humans are a single monophyletic group.
B)recognizes that chimpanzees,gorillas,orangutans,and humans are a polyphyletic group.
C)does not include humans,making it a paraphyletic group.
D)none of the above
Fill in the Blank Questions

Question 31

The ancestral/derived relationships among the different states of a taxonomic character are known as its ________.

Question 32

Unlike ancestral character states,variant forms of characters that arose later within the group are named ____________ character states.

Question 33

A branching diagram that presents the nested hierarchical pattern of clades within clades is called a _______________.

Question 34

To a cladist,the statement that molluscs evolved from roundworms implies:

A)These groups are not monophyletic.
B)These groups are paraphyletic.
C)Molluscs evolved from an ancestral group from which it did not belong.
D)all of the above

Question 35

"An irreducible (basal)grouping of organisms,diagnosably distinct from other such groupings,and within which there is a parental pattern of ancestry and descent" describes the _________.

Question 36

Character similarity that results from common ancestry is called _______________.

Question 37

The study of taxonomy that measures the overall similarity of organisms without regard to phylogeny is named __________________.

Question 38

The method that we use to determine which state of a character is ancestral and which are derived is called ____________.

Question 39

To maintain cladistic classification,_______________ must be recognized as the separate kingdoms containing ciliates,flagellates and microsporidia.

Question 40

Systematists often use a principle called ________________ to resolve conflicts among taxonomic characters.