Reading Evolutionary Trees — Drills · Grade 10 Science
Chapter: Evolution, Ancestry & BiodiversityWhat these drills covers
By the end of Reading Evolutionary Trees you should be able to:
- I can identify common ancestry from branching relationships.
- I can evaluate molecular and anatomical evidence without treating a tree as a ladder.
2 questions, written answer, each with a worked explanation.
Vocabulary used: node, sister lineages, derived feature.
Problem 1
Name evidence that could strengthen a proposed tree.
Answer and explanation
Agreement among several independent anatomical features and appropriate molecular datasets, with uncertainty and alternative models considered.
Problem 2
Explain why a modern fish is not an earlier step on a ladder leading to a modern mammal.
Answer and explanation
Both are present-day lineages with their own histories; a tree models branching ancestry, not ranked progress.