A-level Biology: Genetics, DNA, and Evolution

One of the major achievements during the Carboniferous, probably in response to a drying environment, was the development of the Amniotic egg, the major topic of this article.

Here is a list of topics featured in the article:

Some questions that you might like:

  • List the evidence that we have that birds are amniotes
  • Find out: what is unusual about Monotremes?  Why should we regard them as amniotes and would you expect them to be synapsid or diapsid? What characteristic do you rely upon to make the distinction?  Would you still be able to make a decision if you only had the skin and no skeleton?
  • Write a bullet point list showing how you could attempt to make a phylogenetic link between two animals only known as fossils.
  • In the Cladogram below identify:
    1. A Clade
    2. A Paraphyletic group and its Outgroup
    3. A Polyphyletic group (that is a group with more than one most recent ancestor and therefore not a clade).

Credit: Petter Bøckman, Wikimedia Commons

By Sphenodon.

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