Which of the following is an example of homoplasy?
a. Hair in humans and fur in mice
b. Astragalus ankle bones in hippos and deer
c. Hox genes in humans and flies
d. Streamlined bodies in dolphins and ichthyosaurs

Choose the best definition of a fossil.

a. A rock that contains information about an organism

b. A bone, tooth, shell, or other hard part of an organism that has been preserved

c. Any trace of an organism that lived in the past

d. Any part of a dead organism

Critique the following statement: The absence of a trait cannot be used as a synapomorphy in phylogenetic analysis; only shared derived traits that are present in the clade can be used.

Which of the following best characterizes an adaptive radiation?

a. Descendant species occupy a large geographic area.

b. A single lineage diversifies rapidly, and descendant species occupy many habitats and ecological roles.

c. Natural selection is particularly intense, because disruptive selection occurs.

d. Species recover after a mass extinction.

What important assumption does parsimony make when assessing which phylogenetic tree is most accurate? Why was parsimony misleading in the case of the astragalus during the evolution of artiodactyls?

You can use a 'one-snip test' to identify monophyletic groups—meaning that if you 'cut' any branch on a tree, everything that 'falls off' is a monophyletic group. Why is this valid?

Fossilization continues even today. If you wanted to increase the probability that your deceased favorite pet would become fossilized, what actions would you take?

a. Place the corpse in an environment where decomposition is rapid (such as a forest).

b. Place the corpse in an environment where decomposition is slow (such as a swamp or bog).

c. Place the corpse in an environment where there are plenty of rocks (such as a boulder field).

d. Place the corpse in an environment where plenty of oxygen is available (such as in a mountain stream).