lecture 1 Flashcards
(38 cards)
What is systematics?
The scientific study of the kinds and diversity of organisms and their relationship.
(Simpson, 1961)
What is taxonomy?
The theory and practice of classifying organisms.
(Mayr, 1991)
What is nomenclature?
A system of names.
(Mayr, 1991)
What are the three overlapping charges of systematics?
1) The naming of species
2) their classification
3) the reconstruction of phylogenies.
What are trees of relationships?
Visual representations of the evolutionary relationships among species.
Why give names to organisms?
To satisfy man’s inherent curiosity of the natural world and for utilitarian purposes.
(Diamond, 1966; Berlin, 1992)
How many species of plants and animals are named?
Over 1.5 million species are named, with an estimated 30 million believed to exist.
Where is the greatest diversity of species found?
In tropical regions rather than temperate regions.
What is folk taxonomy?
Indigenous systems of classification in many cultures.
Who developed binomial nomenclature?
Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist.
What is the purpose of taxonomy?
To group species and arrange taxa to show natural (evolutionary) relationships.
What should modern taxonomy be?
Stable, accurate, and phylogenetically correct.
(Janzen, 1993)
What is the Biological Species Concept?
Reproductively isolated groups of interbreeding organisms.
What is the Recognition Species Concept?
The most inclusive population of individual biparental organisms which share a common fertilization system.
What is the Phylogenetic Species Concept?
Clusters of organisms possessing uniquely shared characters.
What did Peter Raven say about our knowledge of species?
We cannot even estimate the number of species of organisms on Earth to an order of magnitude, an appalling situation in terms of knowledge and our ability to affect the human prospect positively.
What is the urgency in systematics?
Loss of tropical rainforests and bio-ignorance leading to decay of systematic research.
Why are molecules important in systematics?
Recent advances in molecular techniques provide new characters for refining classification.
What are cryptic species?
Species that are morphologically similar but genetically distinct.
What techniques are used in molecular systematics?
Allozyme/isozyme analyses, mitochondrial DNA analysis, PCR amplification, and DNA sequencing.
What is biogeography?
The study of geographic distribution of organisms.
What does disjunction mean in biogeography?
A major geographical gap in distribution of a taxon.
What does endemic mean?
Restricted to a particular region.
What are Pleistocene refugia?
Favorable areas where species survived periods of glaciation.
