Question

7.
shared characteristics
tortoise
horse
wolf
leopard
house cat
purring
retractable claws
carnivorous
hair
a. which trait(s) do leopards share with horses?
b. circle the location on the cladogram where the most recent common ancestor between the leopard and horse can be found.

Explanation:

a. To find shared traits, identify characteristics on the cladogram that are present in the lineage leading to both leopards and horses, before their branches diverge. Only the "hair" trait is shared by both.
b. The most recent common ancestor of two species on a cladogram is the point where their respective branches meet and split from a single lineage. For leopards and horses, this is the node just before the horse branch splits off from the main lineage that leads to wolves, leopards, and house cats, which is the same node associated with the "hair" trait.

Answer:

a. Hair
b. The node (branch point) on the cladogram where the horse's branch separates from the lineage that includes wolf, leopard, and house cat, which is the node marked with the "hair" trait.