Which of the following statements is always TRUE about sister taxa on a phylogenetic tree? Sister taxa are always defined by shared ancestral characteristics that have been modified in all other taxa in the phylogeny. Sister taxa always share a most recent common ancestor that is not shared with any other taxon on the phylogeny. Sister taxa are always the result of speciation events that result in two new genera. Sister taxa are always the result of the most recent divergence event represented on a phylogeny.

Question

Biology

Sasha Hopkins

21 December, 12:48

Which of the following statements is always TRUE about sister taxa on a phylogenetic tree? Sister taxa are always defined by shared ancestral characteristics that have been modified in all other taxa in the phylogeny. Sister taxa always share a most recent common ancestor that is not shared with any other taxon on the phylogeny. Sister taxa are always the result of speciation events that result in two new genera. Sister taxa are always the result of the most recent divergence event represented on a phylogeny.

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Clark Shepherd · Answer 1

Sister taxa always share a most recent common ancestor that is not shared with any other taxon on the phylogeny.

Explanation:

Phylogenetic trees are diagrams representing these relationships of ancestry and descent, consisting of lines that branch according to the past existence of an event that transformed one species into two new species. The junction of this fork is called a knot, where it represents this moment of diversification and the common ancestor of the species that are located at the tip of each fork.

In this type of diagram it is possible to see that sister taxa always share a more recent common ancestor that is not shared with any other phylogeny taxon. This is because sister taxa are the closest monophyletic group to another monophyletic group. Both sister taxa share a unique common ancestor.