2.4.4 Identifying Organisms Flashcards
What two things make up the binomial system?
- the first part is the genus
- the second part is the particular species
What is the name of naming system used today?
The binomial system
What is placing organisms into groups based on their shared features known as?
Taxonomy
What is the hierarchy of the classification groups?
- Kingdom
- Phylum
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Genus
- Species
What are the 5 kingdoms (proposed in 1959)?
- anamalia
- plantae
- fungi
- protoctista
- prokaryote
How do we know that members of the same taxon are likely to share a common ancestor?
They have shared features
What did Carl Woese do in the 1960s?
Woese used RNA sequencing to construct phylogenies of groups of bacteria
What does ‘phylogeny’ mean?
The evolutionary history of a kind of organism
What did Woese notice about a certain group of bacteria?
He noticed that a group lacked the RNA sequence characteristics of bacteria. He therefore proposed a new group in 1977 called the Archaea.
Why were so many scientists sceptical of Woese’s ideas?
He hated large meetings, meaning he rarely has chance to argue his points
What did Otto Kandler do in 1981?
He accepted Woese’s work and set up the first Archaea conference, which influenced other scientists
What were the three domains proposed by Kandler and Woese in 1999?
- archaea
- bacteria
- eukarya
What do phylogenetic trees represent?
They represent the evolutionary relationships based on existing evidence
What are phenotypic traits?
They are observable characteristics
Other than genes, why else might two species look similar?
Organisms sometimes look similar only because they are adapted to similar conditions
