Phylogenies Flashcards
(23 cards)
What are the 7 properties of life?
Organization and complexity, capacity to process energy (metabolism), response to environment, growth/development, reproduction, regulation (homeostasis), Evolution/adaptation
What are the levels of biological organization from broad to specific?
Biosphere, ecosystem, community, population, species, organism, organ/organ system, tissue, cell, organelle, molecule.
How can biology be studied?
Levels of organization Interactions between things Flow and change of matter/energy Flow and change of information (genes) Evolution/change over time
Who invented the modern system of taxonomy and the binomial nomenclature system of naming species?
Carl Linneaus
How does Linnaean taxonomy work?
It employs a system of nested hierarchies based on differing degrees of similarity
What are the taxonomical categories from most broad to most specific?
Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
What are the three domains of life?
Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarya
Which of the three domains of life are made of prokaryotic cells?
Archaea and bacteria
What are the kingdoms of the eukarya domain?
Plantae, Animalia, Fungi, Protists, and algae
What are the 3 differences between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells?
Prokaryotic cells don’t have a nucleus or membrane-bound organelles and eukaryotic cells do; prokaryotic cells are smaller and eukaryotic cells are larger; Prokaryotic cells have circular DNA and Eukaryotic cells have DNA in the form of chromosomes
What are the 2 similarities between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells?
Both have cytoplasm, and both have plasma membranes
Give an example of the benefit of biodiversity
When there was an outbreak of a fungal disease that targeted Caribbean seafans, the areas with more biodiversity suffered less than those with lower biodiversity.
What purpose do phylogenetic trees serve other than organizing life?
They are a theory as to the pattern of descent over time
What do the tips of phylogenies represent?
Taxa, which can be a species, genus, etc.
What is the key criterion for judging the relatedness of two taxa on a phylogeny?
Closer related taxa are those that share a more recent common ancestor.
Describe the relationship between two sister taxa and their common ancestor.
The common ancestor of two taxa was neither of the two taxa, but something entirely different
Define homologous traits
Traits that are shared due to common ancestry
What is a clade/lineage with respect to homologous structures?
A common ancestor and all its descendants that share a homologous structure
Give an example of homologous structures
The limbs of all tetrapods are similar in structure (even though they have different functions).
What is the term for traits that are similar but not due to common ancestry?
Analogous structures
What type of evolution produces analogous structures?
Convergent evolution
What is progressive evolution?
The idea that there is some force that drives evolution towards higher levels of complexity
Why is progressive evolution false?
Because only a small percentage of evolutionary change results in species that are more complex; most of the products of evolution are no more complex than a majority of the species that already exist. Plus, there are plenty of species that have been surviving successfully with a fairly simple anatomical/biological structure.
