Long-branch attraction is
A) the inferring of too close a relationship between rapidly evolving species or populations.
B) the inferring of too close a relationship between slowly evolving species or populations.
C) a method for inferring phylogenetic ancestry of rapidly evolving clades.
D) a method for inferring phylogenetic ancestry of slowly evolving clades.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Long-branch attraction is an artifact of phylogenetic analyses where rapidly evolving lineages are incorrectly inferred to be closely related due to their high rate of evolution, rather than their actual evolutionary relationships. This often occurs because the rapid accumulation of mutations can make these lineages appear more similar to each other than they are to more slowly evolving lineages.

Long-Branch Attraction Is