Download Amazing phylogenetic facts

Amazing Phylogenetic Facts
1. The whales evolved from a lineage of even-toed ungulates (the group including deer, sheep, cows,
camels, pigs, giraffes, and hippos). The data suggest that the whale clade is sister to the hippos.
2. If you count down from humans there are only about 27 nodes that connect us to other living groups
before you get back to the origin of life.
3. The fungi are closely related to animals. These two groups share a modified genetic code in the
mitochondrion and flagella that are smooth and posterior. Fungal cell walls are made of chitin – the
same compound that forms the exoskeleton of arthropods such as insects.
4. The birds are a lineage of the dinosaurs, within the maniraptorans (e.g., Velociraptor). The
maniraptorans are a lineage of the coelurosaurs (which also include Tyrranosaurus).
5. The “land plants” have reinvaded water many times. Examples include pondweed and duckweed in
freshwater and eelgrass in the sea.
6. Molecular analyses have identified a clade of mammals called the Afrotheria, all of which originated in
Africa. It includes such different looking animals as: Elephants, elephant shrews, aardvarks, hyraxes,
sea-cows, and manatees. (Interestingly they all have somewhat fleshy noses).
7. The potato blight “fungus,” which caused the Irish potato famines is not a fungus but a group of
eukaryotes that is quite closely related to the brown algae (kelps).
8. Seals, sealions, and walruses – the pinnipeds – are a lineage that is embedded well within the
carnivore clade (which includes dogs, cats, hyaenas, civets, mongooses, raccoons, badgers, skunks,
raccoons, bears, weasels, otters, and pandas). It has been a source of controversy as to whether
pinnipeds are most closely related to otters and their kin, or bears.
9. Crocodiles are more closely related to birds than to lizards. Crocodiles are members of the archosaur
clade, which also includes pterosaurs (flying “reptiles”) and dinosaurs. The archosaurs have shared
skull traits.
10. Chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than to gorillas.
11. Starfish and urchins are more closely related to vertebrates than to other “invertebrates” such as
mollusks and worms.
12. The marsupials evolved in the southern hemisphere when South America, Antarctica, and Australasia
were still connected.
13. A number of plant and animal groups, including certain groups of frogs, migrated from the southern to
the northern hemisphere by rafting on India, which broke away from Madagascar before moving north
to hit Asia.
14. Feathers evolved well before flight, probably for thermal regulation. They occurred in many large
terrestrial dinosaurs, possibly even T. rex.
15. Leaves evolved independently in ferns and seed plants.
16. Powered flight evolved four times in animals: insects, bats, birds, and pterosaurs.
17. Animals invaded land multiple times including: vertebrates, insects, arachnids, isopods (wood lice),
earthworms, round worms.
18. Figs and their pollinating fig wasp species have almost perfectly matched phylogenies.
19. Multicellular life evolved many times independently. For example, the following each represent
independent origins of multicellularity: Animals, fungi, land plants, red algae, green algae, brown
algae (=kelp).
20. Some individual genes show “transpacific polymorphisms”: genetic variation that reflects variation that
was present before two species split but have been retained since. For example, a human with an A
allele at the ABO blood group genetic locus, has a gene that is more closely related to a chimpanzee
with the A-blood group than to a human with the B blood group.
21. One of the main clades of mammals includes primates, rodents, lagomorphs (rabbits).