Question

Two new species of plants that are morphologically similar (same leaf type, similar reproductive structures, etc.) are discovered. The botanist who discovers these plants determines that one species possesses sixteen chromosomes and the other species has thirty-two chromosomes. Both plants contain multiple sets of the same eight distinctly different chromosomes. The most probable explanation for these findings is that the second plant evolved from the first by

Answer 1

Whole genome duplication

Step-by-step explanation:

Whole genome duplication is a form of chromosomal rearrangement whereby a different organism having additional copies of the entire genome of the original organism is produced. In this case, the second plant evolved from the first by the duplicating the entire genome set of the first plant once.