Phylogenetics

Genome is the genetic complement of an individual. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of DNA/RNA. The term genome can be applied specifically to mean that stored on a complement set of nuclear DNA but can also be applied to that stored within organelles that contain their own DNA as with the mitochondrial genome or the chloroplast genome. All prokaryotes and eukaryotes genome contain significant portion of repetitive DNA, there are two categories of repetitive DNA in…

The mosquito-borne flavi-virus known as the Zika virus was originally found in the Zika forest of Uganda in 1947. Zika first was found in a febrile rhesus macaque monkey and later identified in Aedes africanus mosquitoes from the same forest. The first three cases of human infection were reported in 1954 in Nigeria. The first of the recurring events in humans arrived from Africa and Asia in past years. However, not until 2007, on Yap Island that a major widespread was conveyed. Zika infections…

What are some similarities and differences between parsimony and maximum likelihood methods of phylogenetic tree reconstruction? Similarity= both assume to minimize the total number of changes that occure Difference= parsimony is for unrooted tree and maximum likelihood is for a rooted tree. Maximum likelihood explains how characters evolve and parsimony…

Article 6: Why did modern human populations disperse from Africa ca. 60,000 years ago? A new model Based on new research it has been found that origins of modern humans occurred approximately 150,000 to 200,000 years ago. After that there was a dispersal of these primates into Asia and Europe. The question that this paper sought to answer was why it took 100,000 years for this dispersal to happen from Africa. It was suggested that there was an increase in technological, economic, social and…

He claims, that Andreasen says a cladistic classification can be represented in a “phylogenetic tree.” He says, these phylogenetic trees, “identify breeding populations in relation to closeness of other human populations through genetic distance (Glasgow 2003).” Using this method of classification Andreasen is able split up the groups into separate racial…

Raven et al. (2014) defines biogeography as a study of the geographic distribution of species, and ties tougher how the species are related or not related and natural selection. Moseley et al. (2014) define biogeography as the study of patters that may form in the biotic environment and we can use the scientific process and information gathered from the past and present to study the distributions of plants and animals. Moseley et al. (2014) are the only authors that go into details about why we…

Liliana Nunez Professor Tronske Biology 111L.10 02/22/2017 Shark Study Reveals Taste Buds were Key to Evolution of Teeth While human taste buds sit individually on the tongue, numerous creatures’ specifically non-animal vertebrates have taste buds that line the areas of the jaws that likewise house teeth. The areas of a shark's mouth with the most astounding attentiveness of taste buds are right behind the last line of teeth in both the upper and lower jaws, indicating a significant relation…

The complex evolution of humans has allowed for the development of a mammal so advanced that its population has grown beyond exponentially in a relatively short time scale. The complexity of humans is due in part to intelligence in the form of a large, well-developed brain. An organ of this size and importance is what is known as an expensive tissue, meaning the body requires a substantial amount of energy to produce it (Mink et al. 1981). To explain the relationship between energy and brain…

Introduction Neuroscientist Jaak Panskepp (1998) came up with a definition of emotion such that they are “processes which are likely to have evolved from basic mechanisms that gave animals the ability to avoid harm or punishments and seek valuable resources or reward.” Robert Plutchik, an American psychologist suggested that there are eight primary emotions that have an associated behavior and functional aspect: fear, anger, joy, sadness, acceptance, disgust, expectation, and surprise. This is…

Wandering in my neighborhood, I imagined how scientists tried to pinpoint every living creature on the phylogenetic tree--no matter it was the cicada humming unfamiliar songs, the squirrels cavorting on the lawn, or the Samoyed rubbing against my legs. Putting on my earbuds and immersing myself in melody, I wondered what made certain hits go viral unexpectedly…