Question

A scientist comes across two different but similar-looking species of reptile: one on the east coast of North America, and the other on the west coast of Africa. It is hypothesized that these species became separated by continental drift. If this is true, should the two reptile species have more or less DNA similarity to each other than humans have to chimpanzees, which diverged from each other about five million years ago?

Answer 1

Continental drift and DNA similarity

Step-by-step explanation:

• If the reptiles separated by continental drift then the species will have less DNA similarity to each other than humans have to chimpanzees
• Here scientist comes across two different but similar looking species of reptiles on two different locations which means that species are phenotypically similar (looking similar) and genotypically different
• DNA similarity is governed by the genotype as in case of chimpanzees and humans; chimpanzees are genetically closer to humans therefore their DNA similarity will be quite high