Question

Pick the correct answer for the words in bold.

A researcher examines two populations of marmots that occur in separate but adjacent areas. Marmots from the two populations cannot be told apart by external appearance but have different alleles at several loci. The marmot populations would be considered separate species by the ( morphological, biological or phylogenetic) species concept but would be considered the same species by the ( morphological, biological or phylogenetic) species concept.

Answer 1

The marmot populations would be considered separate species by the phylogenetic species concept but would be considered the same species by the morphological species concept.

Explanation: Phylogenetic species concept says that  a species is the "tip" on a phylogenetic tree. It is the smallest set of organisms that share a common ancestor and is different from other such sets on the basis of genetic information. Here, two popultions of marmots have common ancestor but, have some allelic differences caused by evolutionary changes occured due to separation of their populations.

However, as they appear same from outside i.e. they have same phenotype , so , they can be considered as same species according to morphological species concept.