One method of dating the emergence of species is to compare the genetic material of related species. Scientists theor...

Gabriel December 28, 2020

Reversed logic

Hello, I understand the answer to this question intuitively, but I am confused that the answer also seems to be using the converse of the initial premise. If more genetic similarity (MGS) means more recent divergence from ancestors (MRDA), that is MGS --> MRDA, can we say, that more recent divergence from ancestors implies that there is greater genetic similarity, MRDA --> MGS? Logically, we can't, right? So I'm confused why this is essentially what the answer is asking us to conclude...

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shunhe January 5, 2021

Hi @Gabriel,

Thanks for the question! So this isn’t really a conditional argument, it’s a correlational argument. And correlation cuts both ways, so we can make that kind of move. If more X means more Y, then the presence of more Y generally means there was more X as well.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.