Phylogenetic Tree

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A phylogenetic tree is a tree like structure or diagram with branches that represents the evolutionary tree of a group of organisms. Its purpose is to show the phylogeny, or evolutionary relationships between multiple organisms in regards to their genetic and physical characteristics. They are a method of classifying organisms, but also of studying lineages and characteristics of extinct species and testing evolution hypothesis.

In a phylogenetic tree the leaves are organisms, or species, and are named taxa (taxon, singular), they are the descendants in the evolutionary tree. A taxon and is placed within the tree based on its similarities and differences with the other taxa. The interior nodes of the tree represent common ancestors for their descendants, they can not be observed and are mostly hypothetical points in which the scientists believe the evolution line has forked into different directions. All the descendants of a common ancestor together with the ancestor form a group called a clade. As an example, Dinosauria is a clade and it includes non-avian dinosaurs and birds, which means that by studying birds scientists can learn about dinosaurs. Dinosauria does not include turtles, lizards, snakes or crocodiles, but they all have a common ancestor further back. …show more content…
This can mean one of two things: either there isn't enough data to resolve the order in the chain of evolution for the specific descendants of a node and the scientists are doing more research to figure out the proper lineages, or that all the descendants are closely related to one another and that multiple speciations (the process by which a species is formed) have occurred simultaneously or in a very short period of

Dopamine Receptor Lab Report

Azarya Tafesse Scientific Communication Date Due: Friday November 6th 2015 Seminar-Summary Assignment by Dr. Huang Phylogenetic Analysis of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors and Dopamine Receptors Research Background Glutamate is a neurotransmitter prevalent in CNS. While glutamate uses inotropic and metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs), this study is exclusive to metabotropic glutamate receptors. Metabotropic glutamate receptors are seven-transmembrane proteins coupled that are activated…

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How We Use Phylogenies When Classifying Life

D101/D201 = Vahab D102/202 = Raime D105/D205 = Matt D103/D203 = Melanie D106/D206 = Heather D104/D204 = Tim D107 = Seth 1 Week 4: Phylogenetic relationships This week we’ll learn: 1. How we use phylogenies when classifying life. 2. How to read phylogenetic trees. 3. What data are useful for building phylogenetic trees. 4. How to build and compare phylogenetic trees. 2 1. How we use phylogenies when classifying life Mini-review: Linnaean classification system ! Species grouped into increasingly…

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Base Extraction Essay examples

Objectives 1) To understand the theoretical basis of phylogeny reconstruction, and to gain an understanding of how phylogenetic trees are constructed in practice 2) To gain an appreciation of the value of phylogenetic reconstruction for understanding evolutionary patterns and processes 3) To construct your own phylogenetic hypotheses Introduction The Tree of Life Perhaps the most important implication of the theory of evolution is that all species of organisms, including humans, are…

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Protein Synthesis Lab Report

form of a phylogenetic tree, drawing this on a separate sheet of paper and explaining why we drew it this way. The third procedure is about molecular phylogenetics using a coding sequence. First, we will examine the amino acid sequences provided by the manual to mark any differences among the sequences that we find. Lastly, we will use the differences in amino acid sequence to retrace the ancestry of these mammals. We will then make a hypothesis in the form of a phylogenetic tree and explaining…

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Essay on Biology I Honors Chapter 17

Categorized thousands of plants based on visual similarities and differences D. 1735 Linnaeus proposes taxonomic system 1. Categorized thousands of organisms into hierarchy starting with genus and species and building to a higher taxa including two kingdoms E. 1866 Haeckel draws a “Tree of Life” 1. Redrew into 3 kingdoms F. 19591969 Whittaker proposes fourkingdom and then fivekingdom system G. 1966 Hennig proposes cladistics 1. Classifies organisms based on their shared, derived traits in order to reflect their evolutionary history…

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Modern Cetaceans

diversification associated with adaptive radiation while the rate shifts are thought to locate the rate shifts in the phylogenetic tree. Here, these three areas are investigated using means of algorithms that allow to test for correlation between two variables and more importantly calculate the log-likelihood using maximum likelihood method and Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). Phylogenetic signal is considered…

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Species Extinction: Becoming A Threat To The Diversity Of Species

helping to predict trends in species extinction. The analysis of the phylogenetic tree of a group of organisms may provide significant information regarding the origins of a species and the origins of the traits that characterize the interactions between a species and its environment. Evaluation of the evolutionary relationships between species may indicate this information. In a study of bat extinction patterns using a phylogenetic comparative approach, levels of threat were found to be more similar…

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How Do Species Change Over Time To Survive In Different Environmental Conditions?

Unit Topic: Evolution Essential Question: How do species change over time to survive in different environmental conditions? Concept 4: Evidence of Evolution Objectives: Explain what phylogenetic trees represent and what we use them for. Diagram that biologists use use to predict the evolutionary relationships of organisms Classifies organisms into major taxa based in evolutionary relationships. Classifies species in the order in which they descended from a common ancestor using physical characteristics…

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Musk Shrew Literature Review

(H.albicilla, H. Leucocephalus, H.leucoryphus, H.leucogaster, H sanfordi, H.pelagicus, and H.vocifer) were studied for their phylogenetic relationship. Using maximum parsimony and neighbour joining tree building method it shows that sea eagles represent a monophyletic group (Wink, Heidrich & Fentzloff, 1996). Cytochorme B and also 12s rRNA has been used in phylogenetics study of Felidae consisting of ocelot and domestic cat lineage (Masuda et al., 1996). The specimens include individuals form domestic…

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PNAS 1998 Verneau 11284 9 Essay

trees (11). Although individual SINE insertions are very robust phylogenetic characters and can generate detailed phylogenies, they cannot be used to date phylogenetic events (12). Here we demonstrate that the L1 phylogenetic character can determine and date phylogenetic events within Rattus sensu stricto. These rodents consist of Ϸ50 very closely related taxa that evolved very recently and have been largely refractory to phylogenetic analysis (13–16). We found that the Rattus sensu stricto lineage…

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