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A-level Biology > 10 - Classification And Evolution 🐵 > Flashcards

10 - Classification And Evolution 🐵 Flashcards

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1
Q

What is classification?

A

the name given to the process by which living organisms are sorted into groups

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2
Q

What is taxonomy?

A

the study of the principles behind the classification of organisms, according to their observable features or genetic characteristics

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3
Q

What is phylogeny?

A

the study of how closely different species are related and involves the study of the evolutionary relationships between organisms seen in an evolutionary tree

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4
Q

Which is the biggest and broadest taxonomic group?

A

Kingdoms

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5
Q

What is the order of the hierarchy?

A

Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

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6
Q

Why do scientists classify organisms?

A
  • to identify species
  • to predict characteristics
  • to find evolutionary links
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7
Q

Why is it good to have a single classification system?

A

Scientists globally can share their work and links between different organisms can be seen

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8
Q

What are the 3 domains?

A

Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya

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9
Q

Define a species

A

A group of organisms that are able to reproduce fertile offspring

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10
Q

Why are mules infertile?

A

Their cells contain an odd number of chromosomes (63), meaning meiosis and gamete production can’t take place correctly as all chromosomes pair up

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11
Q

What is the classification of humans?

A

Homo sapiens

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12
Q

What are ‘common names’?

A

Old classification system based on physical characteristics

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13
Q

Why was ‘common names’ classification useless?

A
  • organisms may have +1 common names
  • different names in different languages
  • doesn’t provide info on relationships
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14
Q

Who created the binomial nomenclature?

A

Carl Linnaeus

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15
Q

What are the 5 kingdoms?

A

Prokaryotae
Protoctista
Fungi
Plantae
Animalia

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16
Q

Features of Animalia kingdom

A
  • multicellular
  • DNA in nucleus
  • membrane-bound
  • no cell walls
  • heterotrophic feeders
  • food stored as glycogen
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17
Q

Features of Plantae kingdom

A
  • multicellular
  • DNA in nucleus
  • membrane-bound
  • cell wall of cellulose
  • autotrophic feeders
  • most are immobile
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18
Q

Features of Fungi kingdom

A
  • uni/multicellular
  • DNA in nucleus
  • membrane-bound
  • no chloroplasts
  • cell wall of chitin
  • saprophytic feeders
  • food stored as glycogen
  • no mechanism for movement
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19
Q

Features of Prokaryote Kingdom

A
  • unicellular
  • a ring of ‘naked’ DNA
  • no nucleus
  • not membrane-bound
  • cell wall of peptidoglycan
  • nutrients absorbed through cell wall
  • move with aid of flagella
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20
Q

Features of Protoctista kingdom

A
  • mainly unicellular
  • DNA in nucleus
  • membrane-bound
  • cell wall sometimes present
  • autotrophic and heterotrophic
  • some are immobile, others move by flagella
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21
Q

Why does DNA change as organism’s evolve?

A

DNA determines the proteins that are made, which in then determines an organism’s characteriatics

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22
Q

What is an example of a protein that has changed its structure over evolution?

A

Haemoglobin differs from humans in chimpanzees by only 1 amino acid, and in gorillas by 3 amino acids

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23
Q

What is the domain system groupings based on?

A
  • differences in the sequences of nucleotides in the cells’ ribosomal RNA
  • cells’ membrane lipid structure
  • their sensitivity to antibiotics
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24
Q

Features of Eukarya

A
  • 80S ribosomes
  • RNA polymerase contains 12 proteins
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25
Q

Features of Archaea

A
  • 70S ribosomes
  • RNA polymerase contains between 8 and 10 proteins
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26
Q

Features of Bacteria

A
  • 70S ribosomes
  • RNA polymerase contains 5 proteins
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27
Q

What are archaebacteria?

A
  • ancient bacteria
  • can live in extreme environments
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28
Q

Why do we have both eubacteria and archaebacteria?

A

Archaebacteria have been found to be different chemically from eubacteria

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29
Q

What is phylogeny?

A

The study of the evolutionary relationships between organisms seen in an evolutionary tree

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30
Q

What does a phylogenetic tree show that Linnaean classification doesn’t?

A

How closely related organism are in their evolutionary relationships

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31
Q

What is the root of a phylogenetic tree?

A

The initial common ancestor

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32
Q

What does each node represent in a phylogenetic tree?

A

A common ancestor that speculated to give rise to two or more daughter taxa

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33
Q

What is an outgroup on a phylogenetic tree?

A

Most distantly related species which functions as a point of comparison

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34
Q

What is a clade in phylogenetic tree?

A

A common ancestor and all of its descendants (a node and all it’s connected branches)

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35
Q

Can phylogeny be done without reference to Linnaean classification?

A

Yes

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36
Q

Pros to phylogeny

How does classification use phylogeny?

A

Uses knowledge of phylogeny to confirm the classification groups are correct or causes them to change

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37
Q

Pros to phylogeny

How are phylogeny trees helpful?

A

The continuous tree is better than classification’s discrete taxonomical groups that not all organisms fit

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38
Q

Pros to phylogeny

How is phylogeny less misleading than Linnaean classification?

A

Linnaean implies different groups within the same rank are equivalent, even if they are not comparable

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39
Q

Suggest two ways in which the scientific community are likely to have validated Woese’s work

A
  • reproduce it
  • more supporting evidence
  • scientific meetings
  • peer review
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40
Q

What is evolution?

A

The change in heritable traits of organisms over successive generations

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41
Q

What 4 observations did Darwin make about the world around him?

A
  • organisms produce more offspring than survive
  • there’s variation in the characteristics of members of the same species
  • some of these characteristics can be passed on
  • individuals best adapted to environment survive
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42
Q

Why do organisms produce more offspring than survive?

A
  • due to selection pressures
  • survival of the fittest
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43
Q

Why is there variation in the characteristics of the same species?

A
  • favourable characteristics
  • survival of the fittest
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44
Q

Why are characteristics passed in from one generation to the next?

A
  • increase allele frequency of those favourable characteristics
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45
Q

Suggest how information from DNA analysis can be useful to taxonomists?

A
  • can compare DNA
  • can compare proportions of bases
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46
Q

What evidence is there for evolution?

A
  • palaeontology
  • comparative anatomy
  • comparative biochemistry
  • embryology
  • species distribution
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47
Q

What are the principles of natural selection?

A
  • Overpopulation = competition
  • Variation is due to mutation
  • Selection via adaptation (S.otF)
  • Adaptation breed and pass on characteristics
48
Q

What does it mean if factors are density dependent?

A

Size of the population affects it

49
Q

What does it mean if factors are density independent?

A

Size of the population doesn’t affect it

50
Q

What are density dependent factors impacting selection pressure?

A

Predators
Available food/shelter
Nutrient supply
Disease
Accumulation of waste

51
Q

What are density independent factors impacting selection pressure?

A

Phenomena (natural disasters)
Abiotic factors (temp, CO2 levels)
Weather conditions

52
Q

Comparative Anatomy

What are homologous structures?

A

The underlying structures are similar, but the function may be different

53
Q

Comparative Anatomy

Give an example of a homologous structure

A

Pentadactyl limb

54
Q

Comparative Anatomy

What does the presence of homologous structure provide evidence for?

A

Divergent evolution

55
Q

What is divergent evolution?

A

This describes how, from a common ancestor, different species have evolved with different adaptive features

56
Q

When will divergent evolution occur?

A

When closely related species diversify to adapt to new habitats due to migration or loss of habitat

57
Q

Palaeontology

Give reasons why the fossil record isn’t complete

A
  • not all found
  • some organisms decompose before they have chance to fossilise
58
Q

Palaeontology

How do fossils form?

A

When an animal or plant remains are preserved in rocks

59
Q

Palaeontology

What is rock strata?

A

Layers of rock

60
Q

Palaeontology

What do different layers of rock correspond to?

A

Different geological eras

61
Q

Palaeontology

What does the deeper the rock mean?

A

Older fossils

62
Q

Palaeontology

How can we determine the age of a fossil?

A

Radioactive carbon dating

63
Q

Comparative Biochemistry

What is comparative biology the study of?

A

Similarities and differences in the proteins and other molecules that control life provesses

64
Q

Comparative Biochemistry

What are 2 of the most common molecules studied?

A

Cytochrome C and rRNA

65
Q

Comparative Biochemistry

What 2 types of DNA can be analysed?

A

Nuclear and mitochondrial

66
Q

Comparative Biochemistry

What does changes in non-functional groups result in?

A

Neutral evolution due to no effect on function

67
Q

Comparative Biochemistry

Explain how biological molecules can provide evidence species have evolved

A
  • antibodies
  • DNA packing around Haiti es
  • RNA
  • amino acid sequences
68
Q

What is interspecific variation?

A

Variation between different species

69
Q

What is intraspecific variation?

A

Variation between the same species

70
Q

What 2 factors cause variation?

A
  • an organism’s genetic material
  • the environment in which the organism lives
71
Q

What are the 5 genetic causes of variance?

A
  • alleles
  • mutations
  • meiosis
  • sexual reproduction
  • chanve
72
Q

Why may plants be affected greater by their environment than animals?

A

Due to their lack of mobility

73
Q

What is an example of a characteristic that is determined purely by environmental variation?

A

The presence of absence of scares on your body - scars can’t be inherited from a parent

74
Q

In most cases, what causes variation?

A

Both genetic and environmental factors

75
Q

Give an example of a characteristic that shows both environmental and genetic causes

A

Skin colour
- determined by how much melanin pigment it contains
- exposure to sunlight changes colour

76
Q

What is discontinuous variation?

A

A characteristic that can only result in certain values

77
Q

Variation determined purely by what falls into discontinuous variation?

A

genetic factors

78
Q

What graph represents discontinuous variation?

A

Bar chart

79
Q

What is continuous variation?

A

A characteristic that can take any value within a range

80
Q

Characteristics that show continuous variation are controlled by what?

A

Multiple genes and environmental factors, not just a single gene

81
Q

What chart is used to represent continuous variation?

A

A histogram

82
Q

What are characteristics of normal distribution?

A
  • mean/mode/median are the same
  • bell shape graph
  • 50% of data is less than mean and 50% is more
  • most values lie close to mean
83
Q

What is the shape of a normal distribution curve?

A

Bell shaped

84
Q

What does standard deviation measure?

A

How spread out the data is

85
Q

What does students t-test show?

A

This is used to compare the means of data values of two populations

86
Q

What does spearman’s rank correlation coefficient show?

A

This is used to consider the relationship of between two sets of data

87
Q

What can data show?

A
  • no correlation
  • positive or negative correlation
88
Q

What are adaptations?

A

Characteristics that increase an organism’s chance of survival

89
Q

Adaptations can be divided into what 3 categories?

A
  • anatomical = physical features
  • behavioural = actions
  • physiological adaptations = processes
90
Q

Anatomical adaptations

What is body covering?

A
  • animals have a number of different body coverings such as hair, scales, spines, feathers etc
91
Q

Anatomical adaptations

List 3 anatomical adaptations

A
  • camouflage
  • teeth
  • mimicry
92
Q

Anatomical adaptations

How is Marram grass adapted anatomically to reduce the rate of transpiration?

A
  • curled leaves
  • hairs on inside of leaves to trap moisture
  • stomata in sunken pits
  • thick waxy cuticle
93
Q

Behavioural adaptations

Give an example of survival behaviour

A

An opossum plays dead and a rabbit freezes when they think they’ve been seen

94
Q

Behavioural adaptations

Give an example of seasonal behaviours

A
  • migration
  • hibernation
95
Q

Behavioural adaptations

How is courtship an adaptation?

A

Many animals exhibit elaborate behaviours to attract a mate

96
Q

Behavioural adaptations

What two categories do behavioural adaptations fall into?

A
  • innate (instinctive) behaviour
  • learned behaviour
97
Q

Behavioural adaptations

What is innate behaviour?

A

The ability to do this is inherited through genes, allowing an organism to survive in the habitat it lives in

98
Q

Behavioural adaptations

What is learned behaviour?

A

Adaptations learnt from experience or observing other animals

99
Q

Physiological adaptations

How is poison production an example?

A

Many reptiles produce venom to kill their pray

100
Q

Physiological adaptations

List 3 examples

A
  • poison production
  • antibiotic production
  • water holding
101
Q

What are analogous structures?

A

They have adapted to perform the same function but have a different genetic origin

102
Q

Give an example of analogous structures

A

Tail fins of wake and fish

103
Q

What is convergent evolution?

A

When unrelated species begin to share similar traits, due to similar environments/selection pressures

104
Q

Give an example of convergent evolution

A

Marsupials in Australia and placental mammals in the Americas

105
Q

In placental mammals, what happens?

A

A placenta connects the embryo to its motjer

106
Q

In marsupials, what happens?

A

Leave the uterus and enter the marsupium (pouch) while they are still embryos and suckle milk here

107
Q

Give examples of convergent evolution

A
  • marsupial and placental micr
  • marsupial and placental moles
108
Q

How has a new strain of flavobacterium shows natural selection can be helpful?

A

A new strain of flavobacterium is waste water from factories that produce nylon 6. This strain of bacteria has evolved to digest nylon and is beneficial for cleaning up factory waste

109
Q

What are the steps of natural selection?

A
  • organisms show variation
  • organisms better adapted survive
  • successful organisms pass on allele
  • repeated over generations
  • leads to evolution of new species
110
Q

What selection pressure caused changes in peppered moths?

A

The Industrial Revolution smog and dirt

111
Q

Why did dark peppered moths become better adapted to their environment?

A

They were more camouflaged on the darker stained trees than pale moths

112
Q

What happened to the population of pale peppered moths?

A

Decreased as no longer had a selection advantage

113
Q

Where do sheep blowflies lay their eggs?

A

In faecal matter around a sheep’s tail - the larvae then hatch and cause sores

114
Q

Why can sheep blowflies no longer be killed with antibiotics?

A

Developed high level of resistance within 6 years

115
Q

What have scientists studied to see why sheep blowflies had resistance so fast?

A

DNA of 70 year old species of fly and modern species

116
Q

Where did scientists find resistance when they looked at sheep blowflies DNA?

A

Resistant alleles were found in both, showing there was pre-existing resistance to the antibiotic

A-level Biology (23 decks)

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