syllabus
Nature of Science:
Falsification of theories with one theory being superseded by another: plant families have been reclassified as a result of evidence from cladistics.
What you are going to learn from this website
Understanding:
Applications:
- Cladograms including humans and other primates
- Reclassification of the figwort family using evidence from cladistics
Skills:
- Analysis of cladograms to deduce evolutionary relationships
Falsification of theories with one theory being superseded by another: plant families have been reclassified as a result of evidence from cladistics.
What you are going to learn from this website
Understanding:
- A clade is a group of organisms that have evolved from a common ancestor
- Evidence for which species are part of a clade can be obtained from the base sequences of a gene or the corresponding amino acid sequence of a protein
- Sequence differences accumulate gradually so there is a positive correlation between the number of differences between two species and the time since they diverged from a common ancestor
- Traits can be analogous or homologous
- Cladograms are tree diagrams that show the most probably sequence of divergence in clades
- Evidence from cladistics has shown that classifications of some groups based on structure did not correspond with the evolutionary origins of a group of species
Applications:
- Cladograms including humans and other primates
- Reclassification of the figwort family using evidence from cladistics
Skills:
- Analysis of cladograms to deduce evolutionary relationships