AI Summary
[DOCUMENT_TYPE: user_assignment]
**What This Document Is**
This document represents a collection of work completed by Ryan Dong for Harvard University’s Molecular Biology course (BP 723) on October 23, 2020. Specifically, it details work from a “Cladograms” Gizmos exploration, focusing on building and interpreting cladograms – visual representations of evolutionary relationships. It also includes answers to related questions and a reading assignment overview.
**Why This Document Matters**
This assignment is intended for students enrolled in BP 723. It serves as a practical exercise to reinforce understanding of phylogenetic trees, parsimony, and evolutionary concepts like convergent evolution. It demonstrates the student’s ability to apply these concepts using the Gizmos platform and connect them to broader biological principles.
**Common Limitations or Challenges**
This document is a student’s completed assignment; it does not provide instruction on *how* to complete the Gizmos exploration or define cladistics. It showcases a specific student’s approach and answers, and should not be used as a substitute for independent work or course materials.
**What This Document Provides**
The document includes: completed tables of characteristics for insects, primates, and animals (within the Gizmos environment); screenshots of cladograms created for insects, primates, and animals; answers to questions regarding parsimony scores and relationships between organisms; a response to a “Think and Discuss” prompt about convergent evolution; and a summary of the reading assignment, including listed animal tissues and definitions of ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm. This preview does *not* include the interactive Gizmos simulation itself, the full reading assignment text, or detailed explanations of the underlying biological principles.