Asked by crystal

A scientist discovers a new organism that is related to clownfish. What can the scientist discover by using molecular clocks?
the date that the organism first appeared in the fossil record
the age of the organism
the amount of time that the two species have been evolving apart
the number of years that fish have existed

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
The amount of time that the two species have been evolving apart.

Molecular clocks use the rate of genetic change to estimate divergence times between lineages. They do not give the age of an individual organism, the fossil first appearance date (that comes from paleontology), or the total time fish have existed without additional broad calibration.