Chapter 2 Flashcards
What is systematics?
study of biological diversity and origin
What is the four main goals of systematics?
- document and understand Earth’s biological diversity
- reconstruct history of biodiversity
- develop natural/ evolutionary classification of living and extinct organisms
- identify and reclassify polyphyletic taxa
What are 5 other roles of systematics?
- identify and distinguish species
- describe and name new taxa
- provide tools to aid others in identifying specimens
- infer evolutionary relationship among species and higher taxa
- undertake biogeographic analyses
What is a phylogenetic tree?
diagrams of branches and nodes depicting flow of genetic information over time; shows how organisms are related
How is a phylogenetic tree made? (2)
- one tree from one common ancestor
- traces of pattern through anatomy and genome in all organisms
What are characters?
homologous anatomical or genetic traits
What are five examples of characters?
morphology,
anatomy,
development,
karyotype (chromosomal makeup),
behavior
What are character states?
variation in form of character
What is a clade?
a monophyletic group of a common ancestor and all descendants
What are 4 examples of paraphyletic groups?
- Reptilia excluding birds
- Crustacea excluding Hexapoda
- Invertebrata excluding vertebrates
- Prokaryota excluding Eukaryota
How does polyphyletic groups arise (2)?
- insufficient knowledge on how taxons are related
- often grouped due to convergent evolution
What are three examples of polyphyletic groups?
- Radiata (Radial Symmetry)- Cnidaria, Ctenophora, and Echinodermata
- Articulata- Annelida and Arthropoda
- Yeast classified in Protists
What are homologous characters?
shared ancestry present in two or more taxa
How is homologous characters identified (2)?
- embryological evidence
- position and structure of nucleotide or amino acids sequences
What are the levels for homology?
genes, anotomical structures, and developmental processes
What is an example of homology at one but not at another level?
Distal-less- gene is homologous, but appendage produced is not
How is similarity of function not a valid way to determine homology?
nonhomologous genes can converge
What are orthologues?
genes evolved from speciation
What are paralogues?
Genes separated by duplciation events
What is molecular phylogenetics?
trees built from DNA sequences
What is an apomorphy?
shared, derived character state
What is a plesiomorphy?
older state of a character
How is a trait identified in a tree as apomorphic or plesiomorphic?
apomorphy when a new transformation takes place, and the pre-transformed trait is a plesiomorphy
What is an example of a trait being both apomorphic and plesiomorphic?
having three segments in Arthropods is apomorphic in hexapods, but those stemming from hexapods are plesiomorphic