What triggered the ordovician-silurian extinction.

The construction of phylogenetic trees is a mapping out the proposed divisions and common ancestors of all living species. traditionally, these trees have been built using morphological data, such as appearance and embryology. recently, it has been possible to construct these trees using molecular data. phylogenetic trees based on different types of information agree with each: that there is strong evidence of a real underlying common descent. this phylogenic tree is composed based on molecular data (rrna). what statements can we infer are true about the organisms throughout the tree? because the tree is rooted, all branches share a common ancestor. all organisms have some sort of cellular structure/organization. all eukaryotes evolved from bacteria. since the organisms contain rna, they share the same dna. if the organisms contain rna, the share the same four nitrogen bases.

Ricardo notices that when he plays soccer in the rain, his ball does not seem to go as far after a kick. what is the best scientific question that ricardo could ask about this observation? is soccer better played in the rain or sun? how does rain affect the distance a soccer ball can travel? how does rain affect the speed of a soccer ball? is soccer affected by the rain?

To answer this question, researchers studied populations of the dusky salamander (desmognathus ochrophaeus) living on different mountain ranges in the southern appalachian mountains. the researchers tested the reproductive isolation of pairs of salamander populations by leaving one male and one female together and later checking the females for the presence of sperm. four mating combinations were tested for each pair of populations (a and b)—two within the same population (female a with male a and female b with male b) and two between populations (female a with male b and female b with male a). the proportion of successful matings for each mating combination was measured. for example, when all the matings of a particular combination were successful, the researchers gave it a value of 1; when none of the matings were successful, they gave it a value of 0. then the researchers calculated an index of reproductive isolation that ranged from 0 (no isolation) to 2 (full isolation). the reproductive isolation value for two populations is the sum of the proportion of successful matings of each type within populations (aa + bb) minus the sum of the proportion of successful matings of each type between populations (ab + ba). the table provides data for the geographic distances and reproductive isolation values for 27 pairs of dusky salamander populations.