Cladistics & Homology
• What does it mean when we say a cladogram depicts a“hypothesis of genealogical relationships between taxa�
• What part of the “anatomy†of a cladogram represents ahistorical speciation event?
• Define synapomorphy and plesiomorphy. How can one character beboth?
• What kind of characters are useful in building acladogram?
• Why are characters found in only one taxon not informative inphylogeny reconstruction?
• What is the difference between a monophyletic, polyphyleticand paraphyletic group?
Which of these ps is/are “accepted†in cladistics?
• Define homology
• Why is homology considered the central concept of comparativebiology?
• What is the relationship between synapomorphy, homology, andmonophyly?
• What is one similarity and one difference between traditionalhomology and serial homology?
• What is the term for similarity due to convergentevolution?
• If presented with two taxa that have a similar structure, whatevidence would you look for to determine if those structures werehomologous?
• Given a cladogram, could you determine which taxa were moreclosely related?
• Given multiple cladograms, could you determine which depictedequivalent hypotheses of relationships?
• What is the principle of maximum parsimony, and how would youdetermine which of two cladograms was more parsimonious?
• Why is it incorrect to refer to any living taxon as beingprimitive? What does “basal†mean in terms of phylogenies?
