Could someone explain how to answer the following question?

Which of the following pairs of organisms is most closely related?
A. a dog and a horse
B. a lizard and a bacterium
C. a cat and a euglenoid
D. a tree and a protist

Question

Could someone explain how to answer the following question?
	
Which of the following pairs of organisms is most closely related?
	A.	a dog and a horse
	B.	a lizard and a bacterium
	C.	a cat and a euglenoid
	D.	a tree and a protist

anonymous · Answer

Sure! My advice would be...look at the big picture. Classify each of your choices into "big" groups (e.g., domains and kingdoms) and then compare.

Let's divvy them up into domains first. A, C, and D all have eukaryotes for both choices. B, however, has a eukaryote vs a prokaryote. So, that one's out!

Now for kingdoms. 
A. Animal and animal
C. Animal and protist
D. Plant and protist

As you can see, the two that share the most similar kingdoms are the dog and the horse. So, that would be your most closely related pair. The logic behind this is - the further along you go on your classification scheme (DKPCOFGS) the closer two organisms are related. And yes - solving these problems quickly does require a bit of memorization of various domains and kingdoms :P hope this helped!

anonymous · Answer

A

anonymous · Answer

^yep! That's what I would say too.

anonymous · Answer

:)