Question

The dog family is Canidae. Some well-known members of the dog family are the domestic dog, Canis familiaris; the coyote, Canis latrans; and the red fox, Vulpes fulva. If this classification represents phylogenetic relationships among the three species, we can conclude that the people who gave these animals these names concluded that __________.

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer is "The common ancestor of coyotes and domestic dogs is more recent than the common ancestor of red foxes and domestic dogs".

Explanation:

One of the fastest way to known if two species have recent common ancestors is to look if they have common taxonomic ranks. In this case we can conclude that The common ancestor of coyotes and domestic dogs is more recent than the common ancestor of red foxes and domestic dogs, because the coyotes (Canis latrans) and the domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) share the same genus (Canis). The common ancestor of foxes and domestic dogs is more ancient because red foxes (Vulpes fulva) do not share the same genus has domestic dogs (Canis familiaris).