Biology Forums - Study Force

Recent molecular evidence indicates that whales' closest living relatives are hippos. However, it remains unclear whether the whale lineage diverged from the lineage leading to the hippos before (left image below) or after (right image below) the other members of the order Artiodactyla (i.e., pigs, camels, etc.) diverged from hippos

Figure is attached.

What can be correctly inferred from the above figures?

A) ‘Other artiodactyls’ are more closely related to hippos in the ‘Before’ than they are in ‘After’ tree.
B) In the ‘Before’ tree, pigs are more closely related to hippos than they are to whales.
C) In the ‘After’ tree, pigs are more closely related to whales than they are to hippos.
D) In the ‘After’ tree, the order Artiodactyls (which includes hippos, pigs and other artiodactyls, but not whales) is monophyletic.
E) In the ‘After’ tree, artiodactyls (i.e. hippos, pigs and ‘other artiodactyls’) are all more closely related to each other than any are to the whales.

In the after trees, pigs are more closely related to whales than then they are to hippos.

Before widespread of DNA data, hippos had been thought to be closely related to pigs, but DNA data shows that whales are closely related to hippos.