Prior to the 1980s, bacterial species were generally classified by a combination of morphological, biochemical, metabolic, and serologic characteristics. this often led to misclassifications of organisms (groupings of species that were not evolutionarily related) because of which phenomenon?
a. convergent evolution, where similar characteristics evolve through independent pathways in different lineages
b. divergent evolution, where shared characteristics diversify through independent pathways in different lineages
c. parallel evolution, where shared characteristics originate from a common ancestor and follow similar pathways in different evolutionary lineages
d. natural selection, where selection acts upon genetically diverse populations
e. none of the above