In 1865, a biologist, St. George Jackson Mivart, constructed an evolutionary tree of existing primate species with many branches based on analysis of spinal columns. But to his dismay, another tree based on limb comparison was quite different. Which of the following analyses would be best to include today to determine which tree is more accurate?

A) comparison of genes that control developmentB) comparison of eyes of primatesC) comparison of DNA sequences of primatesD) examination of evolutionary trees constructed by others.

Question

Biology

Iris Gillespie

20 November, 21:59

In 1865, a biologist, St. George Jackson Mivart, constructed an evolutionary tree of existing primate species with many branches based on analysis of spinal columns. But to his dismay, another tree based on limb comparison was quite different. Which of the following analyses would be best to include today to determine which tree is more accurate?

A) comparison of genes that control developmentB) comparison of eyes of primatesC) comparison of DNA sequences of primatesD) examination of evolutionary trees constructed by others.

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Answers (1)

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Levine · Answer 1

The correct answer is option C) "comparison of DNA sequences of primates".

Explanation:

Before DNA analysis was available, biologists took different approaches to construct evolutionary trees among the species. However these approaches were inaccurate and produced variabilities, such as the one constructed by St. George Jackson based on spinal columns analysis and the other tree based on limb comparisons. Nowadays, comparison of DNA sequences is the most widely and accepted method to generate evolutionary trees for being a highly accurate and reliable source to establish common ancestors among species.