Problem 1: Describe what early Earth was like 3 billion and 4 billion years ago.
Problem 2: What was the significance of the development of photosynthesis and the production of oxygen in the early atmosphere?
Problem 3: What is a shared derived character?
Problem 4: How does our ability to draw evolutionary trees support the theory of common ancestry?
Problem 5: What characteristics are shared by 99.9% of all living things?
Problem 6: List all of the characteristics that are shared by birds, crocodiles, rodents, rabbits and primates.
Problem 7: Choose 5 different organisms other than ones that appear in any phylogeny in this lab manual. Now choose 5 different character traits that may or may not be shared among your chosen group of organisms. Make character chart similar to Table 2.1.
Problem 8: Now make a phylogenetic tree similar to the one in question 6, but with your organisms. Make sure you label the location of where each character trait appears in your phylogeny.