4. Evolution

Phylogenetics — Quiz

Test your understanding of phylogenetics with 5 practice questions.

Practice Questions

Question 1

In reconstructing phylogenies from molecular data, why is it essential to distinguish orthologous genes from paralogous genes?

Question 2

Consider three species A, B, C with a binary morphological character having states A=0, B=1, C=1. Which unrooted tree is most parsimonious under maximum parsimony?

Question 3

Assuming a strict molecular clock with rate r per site per year, two species have sequences of length L=1000 nucleotides and differ by d=20 substitutions. Derive the divergence time T in years and calculate its value given $r=1\times10^{-8}$.

Question 4

What phenomenon causes distantly related lineages with high evolutionary rates to appear falsely closely related under parsimony analysis?

Question 5

Which criterion do maximum likelihood methods optimize in phylogenetic tree construction?