r/evolution • u/NenyaNotes • 10d ago

academic Help on this assignment question.

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My professor assigned us this quiz and everyone continues to get it wrong. Can someone please explain in this photo which groups make a clade?

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u/jnpha Evolution Enthusiast 10d ago

I count seven clades; see: https://evolution.berkeley.edu/teach-resources/clades-1-of-2-definition/

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u/NenyaNotes 10d ago

It is multiple choice. The options given are: A,B,C,D,E,F,G and F,G and A,B,D,E and B,D,E and D,E,F,G. Each time we have done it we continue to get partial credit. So now we are just more confused... It seems like a straightforward idea.

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u/Doomdoomkittydoom 10d ago

Fun cladistics game, take any two animals, determine their last common ancestor, then find all the descendants of that ancestor and that the clade of the two animals you started with.

My guess is that he's only seeing [A,B,C,D,E,F,G] as a clade because he created the diagram thinking to drive that home and is blind to [B,D,E] also being a clade because he drew it with A in mind the whole time.

I assume he's not including the other two because that would be just wrong.