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What is a cladogram? What can a cladogram tell us?

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Final answer:

A cladogram is a type of phylogenetic tree that organizes organisms into clades based on their evolutionary relationships. It helps researchers understand the relationships and common ancestry between different organisms.

Step-by-step explanation:

Cladistics, or the use of cladograms, is a method of visually distinguishing between homologous ancestral and derived characteristics. Ancestral characteristics are found in the common ancestor of the species being classified, whereas derived characteristics are only found in the groups in question. By exclusively looking at derived characteristics, biological anthropologists can develop a clearer understanding of the relationships between the groups being studied.

The emergence of genetic and molecular science has provided additional tools and lines of evidence to verify evolutionary relationships. Phylogenetic trees, based on both physical and genetic evidence, show how species and other taxon groups evolved from a series of common ancestors.

A cladogram is a type of phylogenetic tree that represents these evolutionary relationships. It organizes organisms into clades, which are groups of organisms that include an ancestor and all of its descendants. Cladograms can tell us about the evolutionary relationships and common ancestry between different organisms.

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