A new organism is discovered in the forests of Costa Rica. Scientists there determine that the polypeptide sequence of hemoglobin from the new organism has 72 amino acid differences from humans, 65 differences from a gibbon, 49 differences from a rat, and 5 differences from a frog. These data suggest that the new organism is more closely related to ________.
A) humans than to frogs
B) frogs than to humans
C) rats than to frogs
D) gibbons than to rats

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The fewer the differences in the amino acid sequence of a protein (like hemoglobin) between two species, the more closely related they are. Since the new organism has only 5 differences from a frog, compared to more differences from the other listed organisms, it suggests the new organism is more closely related to frogs than to the others.

A New Organism Is Discovered in the Forests of Costa