Whales and pigs diverged about 80 million years ago.If a DNA sequence has had 24 changes between whales and pigs, the rate of change for this sequence would be _______ changes per million years.
A) 0.15
B) 0.24
C) 0.3
D) 0.48
E) 0.6

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The rate of change is the number of changes divided by the number of years. In this case, the number of changes is 24 and the number of years is 80 million. So, the rate of change is 24 / 80,000,000 = 0.0003. This is equivalent to 0.3 changes per million years.

Whales and Pigs Diverged About 80 Million Years Ago