Name Date Per

AP Biology
Cookie Phylogeny
Modified from Joshua Drew, Columbia University.

Phylogenetics is the science of evolutionary relationships. It is fundamental in our understanding of how

life evolved, how characteristics are shared across the tree of life, and allows us to make testable
predictions about the biology of organisms. However it is also a fairly jargon laden science. For example,
the description of a new species often includes detailed morphological data, each of which can be used
as a character to build a phylogeny.

The purpose of this lab is to focus on exploring phylogenetic relationships. For now, I want you to focus
on how to build a tree. Therefore, we are going to focus on the phylogeny of something you probably
understand very well already – cookies.

Today your lab group will build a phylogeny of candy. Remember each phylogeny is an evolutionary
hypothesis, there is no one “true” phylogeny, just one that is better supported by the evidence.
The following items must be included in your phylogeny:
Oreos Iced Lemon
Golden Oreos Iced Oatmeal
Chips Ahoy Fudge Stripes
Chips Ahoy (with Peanut Butter chips) Coconut Dreams
Marias Nutter Butter

1) From the above choose an outgroup. What did you choose and why?

2) On a poster, construct a rooted cladogram by working with your partner. Use “tick marks” to
identify where characters are added or removed from your phylogeny.

3) When you are all finished, share your cladograms with one another. Together, come to a
consensus about which phylogeny is “best” and re-create it in the space below. Again, use “tick
marks” to identify where characters are added or removed from your phylogeny. Did all
members of your class create the same phylogeny when they worked on their own? How did
you come to a consensus about which is best?

4) Using a marker, identify one monophyletic group, one polyphyletic group, and one paraphyletic
group in your tree.
Phylogenies are often constructed with multiple types of data. In the phylogeny you created you used
something akin to morphological data – the structures of the candies led you to your conclusion. Now
consider new information – the date of first manufacture for each of these candies and the company
that first produced them. Phylogenies strive to show a shared common ancestry.
 Oreos [1912, Nabisco]
 Golden Oreos [2004, Nabisco]
 Chips Ahoy [1963, Nabisco]
 Chips Ahoy Reese’s [2010, Nabisco]
 Marias [1875, Peek & Frean]
 Iced Oatmeal [1936, Archway]
 Iced Lemon [1942, Archway]
 Fudge Stripes [1986, Keebler]
 Coconut Dreams [2010, Keebler]
 Nutter Butter [1969, Nabisco]

5) Describe two ways this additional information could be used in creating the phylogeny of candy.

6) Choose one of the methods you described above and sketch a new phylogeny for the cookies.

7) How do different data sets influence the development of different evolutionary hypotheses?

8) How do different data sets reinforce the hypothetical nature of phylogenies?