Many Groups of Organisms Are Defined by the Unique Characteristics

Many groups of organisms are defined by the unique characteristics they possess. The relative timing of when a particular characteristic arose can be estimated by determining:

A) shared presence of the characteristic in descendants of the population who did not have the characteristic.
B) presence of the characteristic in only the most recent species to have it.
C) how long the characteristic was in the population.
D) shared presence of the characteristic in descendants of the population in which the characteristic first arose.