4.5 SPECIES & TAXONOMY Flashcards
What is a species?
Organisms that can breed together to produce living, fertile offspring.
What are courtship behaviours?
A necessary precursor for successful mating.
What are courtship behaviors used for?
- Allows species to recognise one another.
- Allows for species survival and therefore mating.
Why are courtship behaviours necessary?
Members of the same species are chemically & physically different, so hard to differentiate. Courtship behaviours tell mates and males/females apart.
What do courtship behaviours do?
- Attract members of opposite sex in a species.
- Prevents inbreeding, as you can recognise family.
What are some examples of courtship behaviours?
- Sound
- Pheromones
- Visual displays (ie peacocks)
What is the taxonomy series in order?
Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species
What is the binomial system?
A universal, scientific naming system that allows organisms to be recognised across language barriers.
How does the binomial naming system work?
Made up of the genus and species name (like first and surname)
How do you write the binomial names?
Genus with a capitalise first letter, and species in lowercase. Written in italics. (if hand written, underline it)
What is classification?
The grouping of organisms.
What is taxonomy?
The practice of biological classification.
What is artificial classification?
- Divides organisms according to differences.
- Based on analogous characteristics, ie looks & function.
What is phylogenic classification?
- Based on evolutionary relationships with ancestors.
- Puts organisms into groups based on shared features with ancestors,
- Based on characteristics regardless of function.
How do you interpret a phylogenic tree?
The closer the branches, the closer the evolutionary relationship.
