What Differences And Similarities Did You Notice Between The Trees You Generated?

Question #1

What differences and similarities did you notice between the trees you generated? In particular how did the trees generated with DNA differ than the one you made with physical traits?

- One difference that I observed between the trees generated based on physical traits versus the trees based on DNA were that the trees based on DNA were far more accurate than the trees based on physical traits. The DNA generated trees were based on the physical genetic code, and the similarities between the code, whereas the physical trait generated trees are based more on interpretation of the traits, making them less accurate compared to the DNA trees. On the other hand, one similarity I noticed between the DNA generated tree and the physical trait

This idea highlights that these traits were all evolved from a common ancestor to the mammals representing how the trait has changed overtime, thus illustrated evolution and showed the process. All the traits are seen as “evolutionary significant” because they reflect what the mammal needs most, natural selection and adaptation wise. Most of these animals have evolved to derive their adapted forms of their traits to survive, which is reflected through the phylogeny, thus posing great

The reason that I believe they are very closely related is because the physical traits of the two mammals are extremely similar and they both possess the same traits. On top of this, they are both seen to be related in the same clade in every tree presented by the DNA evidence. Therefore, I believe they are related based on the similarities in their DNA and physical traits, given the results I have derived. On the other hand, one of the relationships that I am uncertain with is the rabbit and the deer. Based on the physical trait data, it is seen that the rabbit and the deer are extremely closely related with only one trait discrepancy. When I look at the DNA evidence, the deer and rabbit are somewhat closely related, but not as closely related as the physical trait data entails. Therefore, I am not very certain that they are closely related. I believe the reasoning behind this would be that the physical trait data is more of an interpretation based on analogous and homologous structures, whereas the DNA evidence is far more accurate looking into the genetic relatedness of the structures. This leads me to be uncertain with the relatedness of the deer and the