13 - Classification and Biodiversity (C2) Flashcards
What is a hierarchy?
A system in which smaller groups are components of larger groups
What is a taxon?
Any group within a system of classification
What is the hierarchy of biological classification?
- Domain
- Kingdom
- Phylum
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Genus
- Species
What is a domain?
The largest taxon and all living things belong in 1 of 3 domains
What are the 3 domains?
- Eubacteria - the true bacteria
- Archaea - extremophile prokaryotes
- Eukaryota - all eukaryotic organisms e.g. animals, plants, fungi, protoctista
What are the 5 kingdoms?
- Prokaryota
- Protoctista
- Fungi
- Plantae
- Animalia
Of the 3 domain system and 5 kingdom system how many are prokaryotic?
- 2 of 3 domains: eubacteria and archaea
- 1 of 5 kingdoms: prokaryota
What is a phylum?
A sub-group of a kingdom
What is a genus?
A group of similar organisms
What is a species?
A group of organisms that can interbreed under natural conditions to produce fertile offspring
What is an example of a protoctista?
Amoeba
What are homologous structures?
Structures in different species with a similar anatomical position and developmental origin, derived from a common ancestor
What are analogous structures?
Structures with a corresponding function and similar shape, but have a different developmental origin
How is the binomial system used?
- Each organism has 2 names - genus and species
- Genus name has capital letter, species name doesn’t
- In italics or underlined
What is the definition of biodiversity?
The number of species and the number of individuals in each species in a given environment
What can cause biodiversity to increase or decrease?
- Succession
- Natural selection
- Human influence
What is polymorphism?
The occurrence of several different forms or types of individuals among members of a single species
What is natural selection?
The gradual process in which inherited characteristics become more or less common in a population, in response to the environment determining the breeding success of individuals possessing those characteristics
What are selection pressures?
Environmental factors that affect an individual’s reproductive success
What is the equation to find the population size from a capture mark recapture experiment?
Number in 2nd sample x number in 1st sample / Number marked in 2nd sample
What are extremophiles?
Organisms that exist in a wide variety of environmental conditions including extremes of temperature, pH and pressure
What are some features of prokaryotae?
- Unicellular
- Microscopic
- No internal membrane bound organelles
- No nuclear membrane
- Cell wall not made of chitin or cellulose
What are some features of protoctista?
- Eukaryotes
- Mainly single celled
- No tissue differentation
What are some features of plantae?
- Eukaryotes
- Multicellular
- Photosynthetic
- Cellulose cell wall
What are some features of fungi?
- Eukaryotes
- Heterotrophic
- Chitin cell wall
- Reproduce by spores
What are some features of animalia?
- Eukaryotes
- Multicellular
- Heterotrophic
- Nervous coordination
- No cell wall
What do biochemical methods measure?
- The proportion of DNA or proteins shared between species to estimate relatedness
- DNA fragments or proteins displayed as bands on electrophoresis gel
What is an advantage of biochemical methods?
They reduce the mistakes made in classification due to convergent evolution
What does the Simpson’s diversity index measure?
- Biodiversity of a habitat
- Ranges from 0 to 1, the closer to 1 the higher the diversity
What causes polymorphism?
The presence of polymorphic genes e.g. multiples alleles for the same gene
How can genetic biodiversity be assessed?
- By determining either the number of:
- Alleles at a locus
- Individuals in the population have a particular allele
What is a similarity between the 3 domain system and 5 kingdom classification?
Both divide organisms phylogenetically
What is the definition of classification?
The organisation of living organisms into groups according to their shared similarities
What is the definition of taxonomy?
The study of the principles behind classification
What is the definition of morphology?
The study of the forms of things
