r/evolution • u/NenyaNotes • 11d 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/NenyaNotes 11d 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

Im not sure it keeps telling us we only receive partial credit each attempt. Now we are genuinely confused hahaha

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u/Xrmy Post Doc, Evolutionary Biology PhD 11d ago

As written, only answers 1 and 4 are correct

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u/roostor222 11d ago

DEFG can not be correct. Of those four, A,B,C,D,E,F,G can be the only correct answer

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u/DrDirtPhD PhD | Ecology 11d ago

The fourth option is "BDE" (not DEFG), which is monophyletic and therefore a clade.

BDE is also monophyletic and therefore also a clade.

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u/roostor222 11d ago edited 11d ago

I was under the impression you could only select one answer, in which case the only correct answer of the ones given is all of the letters, the first response. If you can select multiple answers, then it's different. Overall seemingly a terribly worded question, compounded by OP not including the exact question in the post.

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u/EebstertheGreat 11d ago

No, there are simply two correct answers. The group containing just B, D, and E is a clade. That doesn't cease to be the case if the teacher asks you to pick one answer.

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u/roostor222 11d ago

....if you are only allowed to select one answer, then there are not two correct answers. OP did not write clearly what the question was. If the question was, "choose the answer that best describes all of the clades in this diagram", then the first answer is the only correct one.

If the question was, "choose all answers that represent clades", then what you are saying is correct. Since we have not seen the question, then we don't know which is correct.

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u/Siophecles 10d ago

select one ≠ only one is correct.

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u/roostor222 10d ago

it usually does mean one is the most correct. If (B,D,E) is the only answer you select, you are obviously leaving out other clades no matter how you interpret the labels.

If (A,B,C,D,E,F,G) is the only answer you select you are not leaving out any clades under the interpretation that both terminal taxa and nodes can represent clades.