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Home Q & A Board Biology-Related Homework Help General Biology
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Dkavanagh Dkavanagh
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6 years ago
Evolutionary biologists have developed a number of different phylogenetic methods to find the best tree corresponding to a number of character states for a given group of taxa.
 
  Describe the fundamental idea behind parsimony and explain the strengths and weaknesses of this method.
 
  What will be an ideal response?
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#1
6 years ago
ANS:
Will vary, but should include: The fundamental idea behind parsimony is that the best phylogeny is the one that both explains the observed character data and posits the fewest evolutionary changes. Parsimony has the advantage of conceptual simplicity. Weaknesses of the parsimony method include the fact that parsimony is not a consistent estimatorthere is no guarantee that given enough data the methods will ensure the right answerit is possible to get the wrong tree using this method.
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