HSISMD Flashcards
What is Classification?
Classification is the grouping of information or objects based on similarities.
What is Taxonomy?
Taxonomy is the science of grouping and naming organisms.
Why Classify Organisms?
To represent relationships among organisms, to make things easier to find, identify, and study, and to understand our own evolution!
Why Use a Scientific Name?
We use scientific names to avoid confusion caused by varying common names across regions.
Who was Aristotle?
A Greek philosopher who proposed arranging all creatures in a hierarchy of complexity.
What is the scala naturae?
The dominance of humans over all living things described as the ‘ladder of nature’.
Who is Carolus Linnaeus?
A Swedish botanist known as ‘The Father of Taxonomy’ who developed a system for classifying and naming organisms.
What is Binomial Nomenclature?
A two-name system for writing scientific names, where the genus name is capitalized and the species name is not.
What are the advantages of Binomial Nomenclature?
It indicates similarities in anatomy, embryology, and evolutionary ancestry.
What are the 7 levels of Classification?
Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
What happens as you move from Kingdom to Species?
An increase in similarity between organisms occurs, with fewer different kinds of organisms.
What is Phylogenetics?
The study based on common evolutionary descent.
What is Systematics?
The study of the evolution of biological diversity.
What are Autotrophs?
Organisms that make their own food by photosynthesis.
What are Heterotrophs?
Organisms that use organic materials for energy and growth.
What are Prokaryotic organisms?
Unicellular organisms that lack a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles.
What are Eukaryotic organisms?
Organisms that contain a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles, most of which are multicellular.
What is the first classification system?
Developed by Aristotle, dividing organisms into Plants and Animals.
What are the two kingdoms proposed by Linnaeus?
Plantae and Animalia.
What are the five kingdoms proposed by Whittaker?
Plantae, Animalia, Fungi, Protista, Monera.
What defines the kingdom Plantae?
Plants are immobile, multicellular eukaryotes that produce food by photosynthesis.
What defines the kingdom Animalia?
Animals are multicellular, heterotrophic eukaryotes capable of mobility at some stage.
What defines the kingdom Fungi?
Eukaryotic, heterotrophic organisms that decompose dead organisms.
What defines the kingdom Protista?
A variety of eukaryotic forms that are not fungi, animals, or plants.