Why is a bipedal ancestor an important concept when trying t

Why is a bipedal ancestor an important concept when trying to understand the evolution of birds? It freed up the front limbs so that they could potentially take on new functions such as flight It increased the metabolic rate and led to endothermy. It increased the speed at which these predators could hurt down prey It caused a corollary increase in the size of the brain. Which of the following species is most closely related to the Equidae (hoses)? sus scrofa (pig) Bos taurus (cow) Coelodorita antiquitatis (wooly rhinoceros) Antiocapra American (pronghcen antelope) The most successful strategy for finding the best phylogeny for a group of 50 specie would be map characteristics on to every possible phylogeny to determine which hypothesis is most simple True False

Solution

Answer:

1. (a) It freed up the front limbs such that they can potentially take on new functions such as flight.

Birds descended from one group of exclusively bipedal dinosaurs. Bipedalism evolved in birds through selective pressures acting separately on the forelimbs and the hindlimbs. For birds, the forelimbs ultimately evolved for flight and so were free of axial loads.

2. (c) Coelodonta antiquitatis (Woolly rhino)

Coelodonta antiquitatis is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and northern Asia during the Pleistocene epoch. Horses are perissodactyls odd-toed ungulates. (Modern horses only have the one toe, but ancient horses had more.) The only extant perissodactyls with horns are the rhinoceroses. All rhinos are equally distantly related to horses.

3. (b) False

The best strategy for finding the best phylogeny for a group of 50 species is to conduct molecular phylogenetic analysis in most cases.