Question

Three species of mice that are similar in appearance occupy the same geographic area. One species has tan fur, one has brown fur, and the third has gray fur. Scientists predicted that the mice with brown and tan fur would be more closely related, but they discover the tan mice and the gray mice have fewer differences in their genomes than the tan mice and brown mice. Based on this information, which of the following is the most logical conclusion?

Answer 1

The gray mice do not share a common ancestor with the brown mice.

The tan mice do not share a common ancestor with the brown mice.

The tan mice and gray mice share a more recent common evolutionary ancestor than the tan mice and brown mice.

The gray mice and tan mice share a common evolutionary ancestor that is most likely not related to the brown mice's ancestors.

Answer 2

I think C @Abhisar

Answer 3

This one is tough....

Answer 4

@Abhisar what do you think? I have 1 more after this :)

Answer 5

@chrisvander \(\color{darkblue}{~`Answer's~With~Strong~Statements~are~Only~Appreciated~!!}\) And so simply thinking and saying its C then D or E is not a way of learning things. Make sure you have a good reason which support your answer..btw

Here the process is called natural selection. In the family of species, only the strongest ones survive and then go on to produce offspring and evolve. The fur colours could act as camouflage for the mice in the wild. and so Option which states Tan and brown mice evolved from the gray mouse, most likely because the fur color provided a survival benefit is more closer to your question.

So Which statement is it ?

\(\color{darkgreen}{~''Nice~To~Meet~You~!!"}\) \(\color{orange}{~Have~A~Nice~Day~!}\)

Answer 6

I had this on a test!

Answer 7

The tan mice and gray mice share a more common evolution line. Let me explain, just because two species might appear that they're very different and might look like they came from a different blood-line, there's always a possibility that they're actually closer than you think.

Answer 8

@makaio Really....How Did you in that test ? and \(\color{darkgreen}{~''Nice~To~Meet~You~!!"}\)

Answer 9

@makaio Congrats for finding a lot of time forsharing interesting thoughts.

Answer 10

@Here is the whole process of how to work this out. The scientists discovered tan and gray have a more similar genome than each other than either one does to the brown mouse species. Now, we have to make a large assumption here, but I believe what the question really means is: the similarity in the genomes of the tan and gray species are in key areas and not in introns or similar.

So, now to really answer we draw a tree. We have three species so we draw a tree with three tips:

Now we need to place our mice on there to show the relationship.

I have rooted a tree for simplicity sake. Please note rooting a tree is a fundamental statement about a few things, but we won't dig into those now. I have, even from this simple question, enough information to justify the rooting.

For a quick look at phylogenetic theory, our nodes (see my above tree) represent ancestors and simultaneously, the speciation event. So, the node I have indicated A represents both the most recent ancestor of the tan and gray mouse AND the speciation event between the two. The only other node represents the ancestor of the brown mouse, the lineage that will lead to the tan and gray mouse, AND the speciaiton event.