Classification Systems

Question 1

Classification (Taxonomy)

Answer 1

Hierarchical arrangement of organisms into orderly groups based on their similarities

Question 2

Taxon

Answer 2

A category in which related organisms are placed

Question 3

Clade

Answer 3

A group of organisms that are monophyletic, the group comprises of all of the descendants of a particular ancestor organism

Question 4

Hierarchy of Taxa

Answer 4

Domain -Kingdom - Phylum - Class - Order - Family - Genus - Species

Question 5

Linnean System

Answer 5

Modern system of naming, two-words genus and species

Question 6

Biological Species Concept

Answer 6

A species is a group of similar organisms whose members can interbreed with each other in their natural environments to produce viable and fertile offspring

Question 7

Viable Offspring

Answer 7

Living

Question 8

Fertile

Answer 8

Can produce their own offspring

Question 9

Limitations of Biological Species Concept

Answer 9

Asexual production, apomixis, fossils, ring species

Question 10

Apomixis

Answer 10

Asexual seed formation

Question 11

Ring Species

Answer 11

A connected series of populations, each of which interbreeds with closely sited related populations, but for which there are at least two ‘end’ populations which are too distantly related to interbreed

Question 12

Methods of Reproduction

Answer 12

A form of mathematical classification based on the number of offspring a species produces and the level of parental involvement required to care for them

Question 13

r reproduction

Answer 13

Unstable and unpredictable environments (exponential population growth)

Question 14

K Reproduction

Answer 14

Stable environments (logistic population growth), have carrying capacity

Question 15

Carrying Capacity

Answer 15

The size of the population that can be supported indefinitely on the available resources and services of that ecosystem

Question 16

Molecular Sequences (Phylogeny), Cladistics

Answer 16

A classification process to group all organisms based on common ancestors uses evolutionary lines of descent rather than structural similarities, the more similar the molecular sequence, the more closely related species are

Question 17

Molecular Clock

Answer 17

The way in which scientists use base pairs to determine the time between common ancestors of species

Question 18

Limitations of Cladistics

Answer 18

Genes and proteins may mutate at different rates, the rate of change for a particular gene may differ between different groups of organisms, over long periods of time early changes may be reversed by later changes, confounding the result

Question 19

Assumptions of Cladistics

Answer 19

Common ancestor, bifurcation, physical change over time

Question 20

Common Ancestor Assumption

Answer 20

Because all life evolved from a single ancestor, any group of organisms will share a common ancestor at some point in the past, biodiversity has been produced by the reproduction of existing organisms

Question 21

Bifurcation Assumption

Answer 21

New kinds of organisms may arise when existing populations divide into exactly two groups, does not consider interbreeding or that new features can emerge independently

Question 22

Physical Change over Time Assumption

Answer 22

The offspring of an ancestral species diverge dichotomously in a process called cladogenesis, it suggests that all speciation event are singular splits, the new generation of a particular organism will be the same as their parent generation (pleiomorphic)or different in only one way (apomorphic)