Are we more closely related to Tetrahymena than to other protozoa?
We are more closely related to some other protozoa; those protozoa and humans are equally distantly related to Tetrahymena. Still other protozoa are more closely related to Tetrahymena than to humans, while others are equally distant from humans and Tetrahymena because they are at the end of a separate branch from that of humans and Tetrahymena. In fact, most of the biodiversity on Earth resides in unicellular organisms. Are more closely related to this “tiny predatory protozoan” than we are to some mammals? We humans are very closely related to all living mammals; all living mammals are equally distantly related to Tetrahymena. Think of an imaginary tree in which all the leaves are at the same distance (as a caterpillar would measure it) from the place where the primary branching occurs. The distance between a human and say a mouse is analogous to the total distance that a caterpillar would have to travel to get from the “human leaf” to the “mouse leaf”. Since that branching occurred
Related Questions
- How closely do the faculty members work with individual students? Does a doctoral student work with a faculty supervisor from the outset, or is one assigned later by the school?
- This might be the most common question here: "Whats the cheapest way from City A to City B," closely followed by, "Whats the best way?
- How closely will the actual product resemble my design?
