The bane of my existence =

1. Define the character and its states: What do they look like? (Illustrate!) What are they made of? Where is the character located in the body?
2. What is the evidence that the different character states are homologous?
3. What is the evolutionary polarity of the states, and what evidence is used to determine that?
4. What are the functions of the different states? Why does the function change? Or why doesn’t it?
5. How do the states map onto a phylogeny of vertebrates? (Use a MacClade tree!) What are the interesting patterns of state changes?
6. How might natural selection have acted to create the pattern of state changes? What is the evidence for that hypothesis? Are there plausible alternative explanations?

= 20 pages

roar.