Correct Response: C. Molecular systematics, or the use of molecular genetics to study evolutionary relationships, provides the best evidence that fungi are more closely related to animals than to green plants. It shows that fungi DNA and protein sequences are more similar to the protein and DNA sequences of animals than to those of plants. Although fungi and animals are both heterotrophs (A), molecular evidence provides more support for evolutionary relationships than do modes of nutrition.
Fossil records (B) show that fungi developed soon after land plants, which might suggest that fungi are more closely related to plants. If only phenetic relationships (D), such as the morphology of the fungi, were studied, it would be difficult to determine that fungi and animals are more closely related than fungi and plants because the fungi morphology is so unlike that of animals.
