Chapter 2 Flashcards
What is human biology?
the scientific study of the human species that includes the fascinating story of human evolution and a detailed accounting of our genetics, anatomy, physiology, and ecology.
In short, human biology focuses on how we got here, how we function, and the role we play in the natural world. Importantly, this helps us to better understand human health – how to stay healthy and how diseases and injuries can be treated.
What do you need to be classified as a living thing?
- homeostasis
- organization
- metabolism
- growth
- adaptation
- response to stimuli
- reproduction
What is anabolism?
Converting chemicals and energy into cellular components.
Catabolism?
Breaking down or decomposing organic matter.
What is growth?
Growth is an increase in size that occurs when there is a higher rate of anabolism than catabolism.
What is an adaptation?
An adaptation is a characteristic that helps living things survive and reproduce in a given environment. It comes about because living things have the ability to change over time in response to the environment.
Are viruses alive?
Maybe
What is biodiversity?
Biological diversity, or biodiversity, refers to all of the variety of life that exists on Earth. Biodiversity can be described and measured at three different levels: species, genetic, and ecosystem diversity.
What are the 3 types of biodiversity?
Species
Genetic
Ecosystem
What is a species?
The formal biological definition of species is a group of actually or potentially interbreeding organisms.
What is morphology?
Morphology refers to the form and structure of organisms. For classification purposes, it generally refers to relatively obvious physical traits. Typically, the more similar to one another different organisms appear, the greater the chance that they will be classified in the same species.
What is binomial nomenclature and who invented it?
binomial nomenclature, gives each species a unique, two-word Latin name consisting of the genus name followed by a specific species identifier. An example is Homo sapiens, the two-word Latin name for humans. It literally means “wise human.” This is a reference to our big brains.
It was invented by Carl Linnaeus
What is phylogeny?
. Phylogeny is the evolutionary history of a group of related organisms. It is represented by a phylogenetic tree, or some other tree-like diagram, like the one above for the three domains.
What is a phylogenetic tree?
shows how closely related different groups of organisms are to one another. Each branching point represents a common ancestor of the branching groups.
What is a generalist?
An organism that can thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions and make use of a variety of different resources, such as consuming many different types of food.
