Which of the following represents a monophyletic group?

Question

A.  mosses, liverworts, and hornworts
B.  ferns and club mosses
C.  ferns, whisk ferns, and horsetails
D.  liverworts and hornworts
E.  Charophytes and mosses

Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
What type of thinking is required?
 
Gather Content
What do you already know about phylogeny? What other information is related to the question?
 
Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
 
Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?

Answer 1

C.  ferns, whisk ferns, and horsetails

Clarify Question
What is the key concept addressed by the question?
        · This question is asking you to determine which group of plants is most closely related.
What type of thinking is required?
        · You are being asked to take what you already know and use, or apply, it to the analysis of the evolutionary history of plants.
 
Gather Content
What do you already know about phylogeny? What other information is related to the question?
        · Phylogeny refers to the evolutionary history of different species.
        · Information to build an evolutionary history of different species can be drawn from morphology, cytology, nucleic acid analysis, and other sources.
        · A proposed evolutionary history can be diagrammed on a cladogram, which shows the relatedness of species.
        · A monophyletic relationship shows the closest evolutionary relatedness.
        · A monophyletic grouping includes a common ancestor and all descendant species.
 
Choose Answer
Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
        · If a cladogram is examined, it is clear that the horsetails, ferns, and whisk ferns share a common ancestor. There are no descendant species from that common ancestor that are not included int his group.
 
Reflect on Process
Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
        · Answering this question correctly depended on your ability to use phylogeny in a new situation. If you got an incorrect answer, did you remember that a monophyletic group includes species that share a common ancestor, or that a monophyletic grouping must include all descendant species from the common ancestor? Did you have trouble extending phylogeny to determine the correct answer?