Question

Assuming chimps and gorillas are humans' closest relatives, removing humans from the great ape clade and placing them in a different clade has the effect of making the phylogenetic tree of the great apes _____.

Answer 1

Answer:

Paraphyletic.

Explanation:

In cladistics, a monophyletic group, or clade, is a group of organisms that consists of all the descendants of a common ancestor. While a paraphyletic group consists of all of the descendants of a common ancestor minus one or more monophyletic groups, for instance as in this case, just as humans are removed from the great ape clade and placed in a different clade. This has the effect of making the phylogenetic tree of the great apes PARAPHYLETIC.