YOU'RE THE SCIENTIST!

YOUR EVOLUTIONARY FAMILY TREE

STEP 6: ANALYZE DATA

EXAMPLE

To analyze my data, I am going to identify traits that are shared among all three species—those that are shared between the dog and the human, the human and the frog, the frog, and the dog—and those traits that are unique to each species.

To the right is my filled-in Venn diagram depicting the traits and the species to which they belong. It shows us the traits that dogs, humans, and frogs all share as well as those that they do not.

The bar graph, below and to the right, also illustrates the number of similarities between the human, dog, and frog. It depicts the number of shared traits on the y-axis and the species comparisons on the x-axis.

According to my data, dogs, humans, and frogs all share three different traits:

four limbs
two eyes
breathe air

Dogs and humans share seven total traits:

internal gestation
lactation
warm-bloodedness
hair
four limbs
two eyes
breathe air

While frogs and dogs only share five traits:

snout
four limbs
two eyes
breathe air
quadrupedalism

And humans and frogs just four:

four limbs
two eyes
breathe air
no tail

So, dogs and humans share more with each other than either do to the frog.

The Venn diagram below illustrates shared and unshared traits for frog-dog-human

This video illustrates how to complete your Venn diagram and analyze the results. (Click below to play)

The bar graph shows the number of similarities between the human, dog, and frog.

THE LAB

Analyze the data that you collected and recorded in your Lab Notebook. As in the Example above, use the Venn diagrams provided to visualize and assess the data you have collected. Also, generate a bar graph (like that in the Example) to display our comparative trait data of your different species of primate. This will help you apply the comparative approach necessary to address research questions about phylogeny.

Go to step 7…

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