We hypothesized that all dolphin species would live in relatively large groups consisting of hundreds of individuals. We found an evolutionary tree and modified it to trace the specific trait we were studying. This tree portrays the ancestry of the families Delphinidae and Globicephala. Here is the modified version of our cladogram:
The cladogram indicates different sizes of pods with each color dots. The red dots represent large pods (100-1000), blue represents medium sized pods (20-100), and green represents the smallest pods comprised of 2-20 individuals. This information shows that dolphins can really live in any size pods. They can even be based on environmental factors, such as food availability and predators in the area.
We were able to conclude that the research we conducted rejects our hypothesis. This is because there are an array of pod sizes within each genus, and even within each species of dolphins. Our hypothesis is partially true but it is much too narrow to categorize all dolphin pods as one relative size, when the size can be anywhere along a spectrum.
Well done!
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