Why is reliance solely on external physical traits considered unreliable for determining deep evolutionary relationships among Zokors?
Answer
The subterranean lifestyle often results in convergent evolution of external features, making unrelated species appear similar.
For fossorial rodents like Zokors, the intense and consistent environmental pressure exerted by a subterranean life leads to the repeated evolution of similar external characteristics—a process known as convergent evolution—across various lineages, including those not closely related. Because features like reduced eyes or burrowing structures evolve independently in response to the shared challenge of living underground, relying on these external physical traits alone for deep evolutionary relationship assessments proves misleading and unreliable for constructing an accurate phylogeny.
Related Questions
How did modern molecular analyses change the taxonomic placement of Zokors relative to mole rats?Which three genera are generally recognized as comprising the extant subfamily Myospalacinae?What sensory modalities dominate the sensory world of functionally blind Zokors adapted to subterranean life?What anatomical modifications support the powerful digging required by Zokors?Why is reliance solely on external physical traits considered unreliable for determining deep evolutionary relationships among Zokors?What specific geographical features were found to correlate with genetic structuring in studies on the Siberian Zokor, Eospalax fontanierii?What potential issue arises when attempting to resolve recent Zokor splits using only mitochondrial DNA markers?When Zokor species exhibit high sympatry without strong resource partitioning, what mechanism must enforce reproductive isolation?What did comparative studies reveal regarding species like Myospalax psilurus and M. baileyi concerning morphology and genetics?Molecular clock estimates often date the resolution of genus-level relationships within the Zokor lineage back to which geological period or earlier?