Q45 - Sexual Dimorphism and Floral Evolution in Palm and Saxifrage
The structure of flowers has many morphological characters important to reproductive success, e.g. sexual dimorphism (dioecy, monoecy). Such characters show phylogenetical conservatism, and thus may be used in evolutionary analysis. A-B, flowers of a palm; C, longitudinal section of a flower of species saxifrage.
Figure 1.
Using the information and data, determine which of the statements are true or which are false.
A. The palm in Fig. A is monoecious (i.e. hermaphroditic plants with unisexual flowers)
B. The palm in Fig. A originates from an ancestor, which most likely had hermaphroditic flowers
C. The palm and the saxifrage are both most likely dicots
D. If structures through evolution become more specialized, one would expect the saxifrage to be phylogenetically older than the palm
Question reproduced from IBO 2015, Theoretical Exam A, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - attributed to the International Biology Olympiad. Open the full exam PDF · Community solutions (unofficial)