Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree 1

MODULE 3:

Activity 1 Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree

I. OBJECTIVES

After the completion of this activity, the student should be able to do

each of the following:

1. Know the different taxonomic groups, categories and ranks

2. Construct dichotomous key for different organisms

3. Define and explain important phylogenetic terms and concepts

4. Prepare different forms of phylogenetic tree of related species

5. Interpret and appreciate the significance of phylogenetic tree

6. Answer the review questions at the end of this activity.

II. INTRODUCTION

Prior to the evolutionary theory of Darwin, relationships were

expressed as natural affinities on the basis of overall similarity in
morphological features. Darwin ushered in an era of assessing
phylogenetic relationships based on the course of evolutionary descent
leading to phylogenetic classification.

III. TAXONOMY – DICHOTOMOUS KEYS

Taxonomy is basically concerned with the classification of organisms.
Humans learn to identify, describe, name, and classify important things
that they come across or that influence their life.

Systematics was initially recognized as a more inclusive field of study

concerned with the diversity of organisms and their naming, classification
and evolution. Most authors differentiate taxonomy from systematics,
restricting the former with the study of classification.

One of the most useful tools in taxonomy is the use of taxonomic keys.
Taxonomic keys are aids for rapid identification of unknown organisms
usually plants. They constitute important components of Floras, Manuals,
Monographs and other forms of literature meant for the identification of
plants. The keys are primarily based on characters, which are stable and
reliable. The keys are helpful in a faster preliminary identification, which
can be backed up by confirmation through comparison with the detailed
description of the taxon provisionally identified with. Based on the

MJCanindo
2 Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree

arrangement of characters and their utilization, two types of identification

keys are differentiated: (1) single-access or sequential keys, and (2)
multi-access or multi-entry keys (polyclaves).

Single-access or Sequential Keys.

Such keys are usual components of Floras, Manuals, Monographs and

other books meant for identification. The keys are based on diagnostic
(important and conspicuous) characters and as such the keys are known
as diagnostic keys. Most of the keys in use are based on pairs of
contrasting choices and as such are dichotomous keys. They were first
introduced by J.P. Lamarck in his Flore Francaise in 1778. The
construction of a dichotomous key starts with preparation of a list of
reliable characters for the taxon for which the key is to be constructed.
For each character the two contrasting choices are determined. Each
choice constitutes a lead and the two contrasting choices form a couplet.
For characters having more than two available choices, the character can
be split to make it dichotomous, e.g. if flower in a taxon could be red,
yellow or white, the first couplet would constitute flowers red vs. non-red
and the second couplet flowers yellow vs. white.

Based on the arrangement of couplets and their leads three main

types of dichotomous keys are in use: (1) Yoked or Indented key, (2)
Bracketed or Parallel key and (3) Serial or Numbered key.

1. Yoked or Indented key: This is one of the most commonly used

keys in Floras and Manuals especially when the keys are smaller in
size. In this type of key, the statements (leads) and the taxa
identified from them are arranged in visual groups or yokes and
additionally the subordinate couplets are indented below the
primary one at a fixed distance from the margin, the distance
increasing with each subordinate couplet.
Example:

1. Fruit achene

2. Calyx differentiated from corolla

3. Petal with basal nectary . . . . . . . . . . 1. Ranunculus

3. Petal without basal nectary . . . . . . . 2. Adonis

2. Calyx not differentiated from corolla

4. Plants woody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. Clematis

4. Plants herbaceous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. Anemone

1. Fruit follicle

5. Spur present
Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree 3

6. Number of spurs 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6. Delphinium

6. Number of spurs 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. Aquilegia

5. Spur absent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. Caltha

2. Bracketed or Parallel key: This type of key has been used in

larger floras such as Flora of the USSR, Plants of Central Asia and
Flora of Manila. The two leads of a couplet are always together
and the distance from the margin is always the same.

Example:
1. Fruit achene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1. Fruit follicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2. Calyx differentiated from corolla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2. Calyx not differentiated from corolla . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3. Petal with basal nectary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. Ranunculus

3. Petal without basal nectary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. Adonis

4. Plants woody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. Clematis

4. Plants herbaceous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. Anemone

5. Spur present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

5. Spur absent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. Caltha

6. Number of spurs 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6. Delphinium

6. Number of spurs 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. Aquilegia

3. Serial or Numbered key: Such as key has been used for the
identification of animals and also adopted in some volumes of Flora
of USSR. The key retains the arrangements of the Yoked key, but
with no indentation so that distance from the margin remains the
same. The location of alternate leads is made possible by serial
numbering of couplets (or leads when separated) and indicating
the serial number of the alternate lead within parentheses.

Example:

1. (6) Fruit achene

2. (4) Calyx differentiated from corolla

3. Petal with basal nectary . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. Ranunculus

3. Petal without basal nectary . . . . . . . . . . 2. Adonis

4. (2) Calyx not differentiated from corolla

4 Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree

5. Plants woody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. Clematis

5. Plants herbaceous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. Anemone

6. (1) Fruit follicle

7. (9) Spur present

8. Number of spurs 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6. Delphinium

8. Number of spurs 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7. Aquilegia

9. (7) Spur absent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. Caltha

General Guidelines for Constructing Dichotomous Keys

1. The keys should be strictly dichotomous, consisting of couplets with
only two possible choices.

2. The two leads of a couplet should be mutually exclusive, so that the

acceptance of one should automatically lead to the rejection of
another.

3. The statements of the leads should not be overlapping.

4. The two leads of a couplet should start with the same initial word.

5. The leads of two successive couplets should not start with the same
initial word.

6. Avoid usage of vague statements.

7. An initial couplet should be selected in such a way that it divides

the group into more or less equal halves, and the character is
easily available for study. Such a selection would make the process
of exclusion faster, whatever lead is selected.

8. The leads should be prefixed by numbers or letters. This makes

location of leads easier. If left blank the location of leads is very
difficult especially in longer keys.

IV. PHYLOGENY – PHYLOGENETIC TREE

Phylogenetic classification is based on the evolutionary descent of a
group of organisms, the relationship depicted through a phylogram,
phylogenetic tree or a cladogram. Classification is constructed with this
premise in mind, that all descendants of a common ancestor should be
placed in the same group (i.e. group should be monophyletic).

Phylogeny is the evolutionary history of species, or history of

speciation. It refers to the evolutionary relationships among species or to
the family tree of all life, indicating how living things are related, typically
diagrammed as a tree. Species have evolved through speciation, all
Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree 5

species as being part of a family tree, which traces back to the ancestor to
all life. The ancestral species then evolved through speciation into two
new species. These descendent species evolved into more new species,
and so on. The result is the great diversity of life currently present on
earth. The history of speciation tells us how these species are related to
each other. If they evolved to be separate species relatively recently,
then they are close relatives, if they evolved to be separate species long
ago, then they are distant relatives. The pattern of evolutionary
relationships or history of speciation, among species is what we call their
phylogeny.

Phylogenies can be drawn in several different ways; some of these are

illustrated above.

Because species evolve as ancestral species split into more than one
new species, it is convenient to represent phylogeny as a tree in which
lines represent species and places where lines split into two represent
points where ancestral species speciated (evolved through speciation) into
two new species. A tree representing phylogenies is often simply called a
phylogenetic tree. Consider for example the following phylogeny of some
species belonging to some of the main land-dwelling vertebrate groups:

The species listed at the top, the salamander, frog, mouse, bird, lizard,
and snake, are all currently existing species (extant). The tree tells us
how they are related to one another. None of these species is an ancestor
6 Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree

to any other, since no modern species is an ancestor to another modern

species. These modern species have from common ancestral species that
existed in the past. The tree tells us the pattern of evolution from these
ancestral species, as follows:

 the line marked "A" at the base of the tree is the ancestor to all the
modern species (the salamander, the frog, the mouse, the bird, the
lizard, and the snake all trace back to this ancestor)

 this ancestral species, "A", speciated into two species, indicated by

the lines labeled "B" and "C"; species "B" is the ancestor to the
salamander and the frog; species "C" is the ancestor to the mouse,
bird, lizard, and snake

 ancestral species "B" speciated into two species, one of which

evolved into the frog and the other of which evolved into the
salamander

 ancestral species "C" speciated into two species; one evolved into
the mouse; the other is species "D", the ancestor to the bird,
lizard, and snake

 ancestral species "D" speciated into two species; one evolved into
the bird; the other is species "E", the ancestor to the lizard and
snake, which then speciated into two species, one of which evolved
into the lizard and the other of which evolved into the snake

Species A, B, C, D, and E are all species that existed in the past,

but are not considered to exist any more since the species that are
descended from them have evolved to be different from those species.
We may not worry about naming those species; from fossils, we may
have a good idea of what they were and what their characteristics
were like; other times we do not have a good fossil record for a group
so we do not know. We may be able to determine what some of their
characteristics were, just by knowing about the modern species.
Based on the phylogeny (the tree), the frog and the salamander
are each other's closest relatives -- they are more related to each
other than to any other species on the tree since they evolved from
ancestor "B" and "B" was not an ancestor to any other species on the
tree. The frog and salamander are equally related to the mouse, bird,
lizard, and snake; that is, the frog is just as related to the mouse as it
is to the lizard, or the snake, or the bird. This is true because the
most recent ancestor the frog and salamander share with the other
species on the tree is "A". The lizard and snake are each others'
closest relatives, the bird is equally related to the lizard as it is to the
snake, and more related to the lizard and snake than it is to the
mouse, frog, or salamander. The mouse is equally related to the bird,
lizard, and snake, and more related to the bird, lizard, and snake than
it is to the salamander or frog.
Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree 7

The horizontal order of species on the tree doesn't tell you

anything about how they are related -- what tells you how they are
related is whether or not they trace back (vertically, on a tree drawn
like the one above) to recent or distant common ancestral species.
The phylogeny drawn above could also be drawn in several different
ways; for example, the following two phylogenies mean exactly the
same thing as each other, and as the phylogeny drawn above:

Phylogenetic trees can be drawn in different formats that mean the

same thing. One of the most common ways of drawing trees is to use
a "slanted" format; it is easier to draw than the format above but is
sometimes confusing. The first tree shown from above, with the same
ancestors (A, B, C, D, and E) on it, can be drawn in slanted format:

In this format, every time a line branches into two the species
above the branch point are two new species that have arisen by
speciation from the species below the branch point.

Here are the other two trees from above drawn in slanted format;
these trees mean exactly the same thing (they are different ways of
drawing the same phylogeny):
8 Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree

The following tree shows the relationships lizard alligator bird

among three species: a lizard, an alligator,
and a bird.

If you simply look at their characteristics, a

lizard and an alligator look very similar to each
other -- that is why they are typically classified together as reptiles,
while birds are classified into a different group (the birds). Studies of
phylogeny suggest, however, that alligators and birds are actually
more closely related to each other than they are to lizards
Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree 9

NAME ______________________________ SCORE __________________

SECTION/GROUP_____________________ DATE ___________________

2
Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree
Activity

Worksheet

REVIEW QUESTIONS / TASKS

1. Differentiate Taxonomy from Systematics.

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2. Differentiate: (a) Homology and Analogy, (b) Parallelism and

Convergence, (c) Monophyly, Paraphyly and Polyphyly.

Homology _____________________________________________

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Analogy _____________________________________________

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Parallelism _____________________________________________

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Convergence _____________________________________________

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10 Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree

Monophyly _____________________________________________

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Paraphyly _____________________________________________

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Polyphyly _____________________________________________

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3. Prepare a Yoke, Bracketed and Serial Dichotomous key for the following
groups of organisms:

Group A: ferns, pine, corn, rice, mango, moss, grapes

Group B: cat, lion, birds, turtles, frogs, human, milkfish, sharks

4. Prepare a Phylogenetic tree for the following groups of organisms:

Group A: ferns, pine, corn, rice, mango, moss, grapes

Group B: cat, lion, birds, turtles, frogs, human, milkfish, sharks

CONCLUSION

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Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree 11

Dichotomous Key for ferns, pine, corn, rice, mango, moss, grapes
12 Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree

Phylogenetic Tree for ferns, pine, corn, rice, mango, moss, grapes
Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree 13

Dichotomous Key for cat, lion, birds, turtles, frogs, human, milkfish, sharks
14 Dichotomous Key and Phylogenetic Tree

Phylogenetic Tree for cat, lion, birds, turtles, frogs, human, milkfish, sharks