Question

What conclusion about the bacteria domain could be made from the phylogenetic tree below?

Plants and animals evolved from the Bacteria domain.
Bacteria and Eukarya are more similar than Archaea and Eukarya.
Eukarya has similar evolutionary traits to Archaea.
Eukarya and Bacteria developed on the same evolutionary line.

Answer 1

Answer: The correct answer is -

D. Eukarya has similar evolutionary traits to archaea.

A phylogenetic tree (also known as evolutionary tree) is a diagrammatic representation (in the form of branch diagram) showing the evolutionary relationships among various organisms. It is constructed on the basis of similarities or differences in the genetic or physical characteristics of various species.

In the given phylogenetic tree, archaea domain shows more similarities to the domain eukarya as it has descended after the domain bacteria.

Thus, option D) is the right answer.