Question

Will give MEDALS!!!
The cytochrome c in both horses and pigeons differs from the human protein at 12 locations. Based on this data, you might infer that horses ad pigeons are closely related. What could you do to support of refute this hypothesis? @HELP!!!! , @CHANDANALA , @KinzaN , @Mertsj

Answer 1

this is a tricky question , i have tried answering it but im not sure whether its correct or not.

the question says cytochrome c of horse DIFFERS from the human version at 12 locations , in a similar way the cytochrome c of pigeon DIFFERS from the human version at 12 locations. But in no way this should tell that a horse and pigeon are closely related

to decipher whether two organisms are evolutionarily related to one another or not you have to look for
1) percentage SIMILARITY of amino acid sequence in a protein and not the difference.
2) the organisms should be compared with one another and not with a third organism.

the question defies both these criteria , first of all it is comparing the DIFFERENCES ( and not similarities) and second instead of comparing horse and pigeon together it is comparing horse to human and pigeon to human and then drawing conclusions between horse and pigeon which absolutely makes no sense. You should compare sequences in horse and pigeon to know whether they are closely related or not.

I know this is not the answer to your question. I am not very thorough with evolutionary biology. Others are requested to give their suggestions / view points .

Answer 2

I can see your point that it does not tell us that a horse and a pigeon are closely related. This is something that I will conduct a thorough research on, and whatever answer I get I will share. Thank you very much for helping though. You are very good at biology. Are you considering a field in biology?