Highly conserved proteins such as Haemoglobin and Cytochrome-C provide the best biochemical evidences to trace evolutionary relationships between…

Highly conserved proteins such as Haemoglobin and Cytochrome-C provide the best biochemical evidences to trace evolutionary relationships between different groups. Cytochrome-C is formed of $\displaystyle 104$ amino acids. Cytochrome-C is the respiratory pigment present in all eukaryotic cells. It has evolved at a constant rate during evolution. In chimpanzees and humans, Cytochrome-C genes are identical. The given data shows the evolution of the Cytochrome-C gene in different mammals from kangaroos, cows, rodents to humans :

Groups	Nucleotide substitution in the gene of Cytochrome-C	Millions of years ago
Human/Kangaroo	$\displaystyle 100$	$\displaystyle 125$ mya
Human/Cow	$\displaystyle 75$	$\displaystyle 120$ mya
Human/Rodent	$\displaystyle 60$	$\displaystyle 75$ mya

Select the correct option for the time of separation of two groups and the number of nucleotide substitutions in the gene of Cytochrome-C :

Options	Time of separation of two groups during evolution	Number of nucleotide substitutions
(i)	Lesser	Greater
(ii)	Greater	Lesser
(iii)	Greater	Greater

What do you infer about the type of evolution (convergent or divergent) for the given pair of groups and why ?

Human and Kangaroo

Human and Rodent

Define convergent evolution.

Define divergent evolution.