Evolutionary Relationships Among Organisms

Name of Learner: ___________________________________________________

Grade and Section: _______________________ Date: ____________________

General Biology 2

Evolutionary Relationships Among Organisms

I. Learning Competency

Infer evolutionary relationships among organisms using the evidences of evolution. (STEM_BIO11/12-
IIIc-g-13)

II. Background Information for Learners

In 1859, Charles Darwin published his book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Contrary to creationism, Darwin believed that organisms evolve from a common ancestor. Having a
common ancestor, you are all related to one another no matter how different you are. The relationships
among organisms can be illustrated on a family tree as shown in the illustration below.
Living organisms sit like leaves at the tips of the branches of the Tree of Life. Living things share a
common ancestor. All organisms are related to one another no matter how different they seem.
Scientists collect information that allows them to make evolutionary connections between organisms.
Similar to detective work, scientists must use evidence to uncover the facts. In the case of phylogeny,
evolutionary investigations focus on two types of evidence: morphologic (form and function) and
genetic.

Two Measures of Similarity

Organisms that share similar physical features and genetic sequences tend to be more closely related
than those that do not. Features that overlap both morphologically and genetically are referred to as
homologous structures; the similarities stem from common evolutionary paths. As shown in Figure 2, the
bones in the wings of bats and birds, the arms of humans, and the foreleg of a horse are homologous
structures. Notice the structure is not simply a single bone, but rather a grouping of several bones
arranged in a similar way in each organism even though the elements of the structure may have changed
shape and size.
Misleading Appearances

a. ) The chimpamzee jaw protrudes to a much greater degree than b.)the human jaw

Some organisms may be very closely related, even though a minor genetic change caused a
major morphological difference to make them look quite different. For example, chimpanzees
and humans, the skulls of which are shown in picture are very similar genetically, sharing 99
percent of their genes. However, chimpanzees and humans show considerable anatomical
differences, including the degree to which the jaw protrudes in the adult and the relative lengths
of our arms and legs. However, unrelated organisms may be distantly related yet appear very
much alike, usually because common adaptations to similar environmental conditions evolved in
both. An example is the streamlined body shapes, the shapes of Organisms with homologous
structures a) The chimpanzee jaw protrudes to a much greater degree than (b) the human jaw.
fins and appendages, and the shape of the tails in fishes and whales, which are mammals. These
structures bear superficial similarity because they are adaptations to moving and maneuvering
in the same environment—water. When a characteristic that is similar occurs by adaptive
convergence (convergent evolution), and not because of a close evolutionary relationship, it is
called an analogous structure. In another example, insects use wings to fly like bats and birds.
We call them both wings because they perform the same function and have a superficially
similar form, but the embryonic origin of the two wings is completely different. The difference in
the development, or embryogenesis, of the wings in each case is a signal that insects and bats or
birds do not share a common ancestor that had a wing. The wing structures, shown in Figure 3
evolved independently in the two lineages. Similar traits can be either homologous or
analogous. Homologous traits share an evolutionary path that led to the development of that
trait, and analogous traits do not. Scientists must determine which type of similarity a feature
exhibits to decipher the phylogeny of the organisms being studied.
Molecular Comparisons

With the advancement of DNA technology, the area of molecular systematics, which describes
the use of information on the molecular level including DNA sequencing, has blossomed. New
analysis of molecular characters not only confirms many earlier classifications, but also uncovers
previously made errors. Molecular characters can include differences in the amino-acid
sequence of a protein, differences in the individual nucleotide sequence of a gene, or differences
in the arrangements of genes. Phylogenies based on molecular characters assume that the more
similar the sequences are in two organisms, the more closely related they are. Different genes
change evolutionarily at different rates and this affects the level at which they are useful at
identifying relationships. Rapidly evolving sequences are useful for determining the relationships
among closely related species. More slowly evolving sequences are useful for determining the
relationships between distantly related species. To determine the relationships between very
different species such as Eukarya and Archaea, the genes used must be very ancient, slowly
evolving genes that are present in both groups, such as the genes for ribosomal RNA. Comparing
phylogenetic trees using different sequences and finding them similar helps to build confidence
in the inferred relationships.

Building Phylogenetic Trees

How do scientists construct phylogenetic trees? Presently, the most accepted method for
constructing phylogenetic trees is a method called cladistics. This method sorts organisms into
clades, groups of organisms that are most closely related to each other and the ancestor from
which they descended. For example, in Figure 4, all of the organisms in the shaded region
evolved from a single ancestor that had amniotic eggs. Consequently, all of these organisms also
have amniotic eggs and make a single clade, also called a monophyletic group. Clades must
include the ancestral species and all of the descendants from a branch point.

Clades can vary in size depending on which branch point is being referenced. The important
factor is that all of the organisms in the clade or monophyletic group stem from a single point on
the tree. This can be remembered because monophyletic breaks down into “mono,” meaning
one, and “phyletic,” meaning evolutionary relationship.
Shared Characteristics

Organisms evolve from common ancestors and then diversify. Scientists use the phrase “descent
with modification” because even though related organisms have many of the same
characteristics and genetic codes, changes occur. This pattern repeats over and over as one goes
through the phylogenetic tree of life:
1. A change in the genetic makeup of an organism leads to a new trait which becomes prevalent
in the group.
2. Many organisms descend from this point and have this trait.
3. New variations continue to arise; some are adaptive and persist, leading to new traits.
4. With new traits, a new branch point is determined (go back to step 1 and repeat).

If a characteristic is found in the ancestor of a group, it is considered a shared ancestral

character because all of the organisms in the taxon or clade have that trait. The vertebrate is a
shared ancestral character. Now consider the amniotic egg characteristic in the same figure. Only
some of the organisms have this trait, and to those that do, it is called a shared derived
character because this trait derived at some point but does not include all of the ancestors in the
tree.

The tricky aspect to shared ancestral and shared derived characters is the fact that these terms
are relative. The same trait can be considered one or the other depending on the particular
diagram being used. Note that the amniotic egg is a shared ancestral character for the Amniota
clade, while having hair is a shared derived character for some organisms in this group. These
terms help scientists distinguish between clades in the building of phylogenetic trees.

Choosing the Right Relationships

Imagine being the person responsible for organizing all of the items in a department store
properly—an overwhelming task. Organizing the evolutionary relationships of all life on Earth
proves much more difficult: scientists must span enormous blocks of time and work with
information from long-extinct organisms. Trying to decipher the proper connections, especially
given the presence of homologies and analogies, makes the task of building an accurate tree of
life extraordinarily difficult. Add to that the advancement of DNA technology, which now
provides large quantities of genetic sequences to be used and analyzed. Taxonomy is a subjective
discipline: many organisms have more than one connection to each other, so each taxonomist
will decide the order of connections.

To aid in the tremendous task of describing phylogenies accurately, scientists often use a
concept called maximum parsimony, which means that events occurred in the simplest, most
obvious way. For example, if a group of people entered a forest preserve to go hiking, based on
the principle of maximum parsimony, one could predict that most of the people would hike on
established trails rather than forge new ones.
For scientists deciphering evolutionary pathways, the same idea is used: the pathway of
evolution probably includes the fewest major events that coincide with the evidence at hand.
Starting with all of the homologous traits in a group of organisms, scientists look for the most
obvious and simple order of evolutionary events that led to the occurrence of those traits.

III. Activity Proper

Activity 1
Directions: Based on the information given above, answer the following questions.
1. Dolphins and fish have similar body shapes. Is this feature more likely a homologous or
analogous trait?
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2. Describe maximum parsimony.
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3. How does a biologist determine the polarity of a character change?
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4. “In evolutionary relationships using the evidences of evolution, the more closely related the
species are, the more similar their DNA sequences.” Do you agree in this statement or not?
Briefly explain your answer.
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