Question

Animal A and Animal B each have 95% of their DNA in common. Animal A and Animal C each have 50% of their DNA in common. What does this suggest about the relationship of these animals? Question 5 options: B is probably much more closely related to C than to A. C is probably much more closely related to B than to A. A is probably much more closely related to B than to C. A is probably much more closely related to C than to B.

Answer 1

The fact that Animal A has 95% of its DNA in common with Animal B and only 50% of its DNA in common with Animal C suggests that Animal A is probably more closely related to Animal B than to Animal C.

DNA is a good indicator of genetic relatedness, so the closer the DNA of two animals, the more closely related they are likely to be. In this case, the fact that Animal A shares a much higher percentage of its DNA with Animal B than with Animal C suggests that Animal A and Animal B are more closely related to each other than either is to Animal C.