Use the Following Information and Figure to Answer the Question(s)

question 25

Multiple Choice

Use the following information and figure to answer the question(s) below.
Traditionally, whales and hippopotamuses have been classified in different orders, the Cetacea and the Artiodactyla, respectively. Recent molecular evidence, however, indicates that the whales' closest living relatives are the hippos. This has caused some zoologists to lump the two orders together into a single clade, the Cetartiodactyla. There is no consensus on whether the Cetartiodactyla should be accorded order status or superorder status. This is because it remains unclear whether the whale lineage diverged from the lineage leading to the hippos before or after the other members of the order Artiodactyla (pigs, camels, etc.) diverged (see the accompanying figure) . The figure contrasts the "Within the artiodactyls" origin of the whale lineage with the "Without the artiodactyls" origin of the whale lineage.
-One morphological feature of some modern cetaceans is a vestigial pelvic girdle. If it is determined that the cetacean lineage diverged from the artiodactyls' lineage after the divergence of pigs and other artiodactyla, then the vestigial pelvic girdle of cetaceans should be considered a shared ________.

• A) ancestral character of the cetartiodactyls
• B) derived character of the cetartiodactyls
• C) ancestral character of the cetaceans
• D) derived character of the cetaceans

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