5.3 Classification of biodiversity Flashcards
What is classification?
The process of grouping living organisms that share similr features
Why do we classify organisms?
- Help identify species
- Name new species
- Understand evolutionary relationships
- Convenience - makes the study of living organisms more manageable
What are the 8 taxonomic groups?
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* Domain - Archaea, Eubacteria and Eukaryotae
* Kingdom - Plantae, animalia, fungi, protoctista, prokaryotae
* Phylum - All the groups of organisms that have the same body plan e.g. possession of a backbone
* Class - a group of organisms that all possess the same general traits e.g. the same number of legs
* Order - Subdivision of the class using additional information about the organisms
* Family - A group of closely related genera e.g. dog and cat families
* Genus (genera) - A group of closely related species
* Species - the basic unit of classification. All members of a species show some variation but are essentially the same
What system is used to agree and develop the names of species?
The binomial system
* Universal among biologists and has been agreed and developed at a series of congresses
* Congresse atteneded by delegates from around the world are helf at regular intervals
* There are separate congresses for animals and for plants and fungi
What is the Binomail nomenclature?
A system that uses the genus name and the species name to avoid confusion when naming organisms
* a good example of cooperation and collaboratio between scientists
What is the Binomail nomenclature?
A system that uses the genus name and the species name to avoid confusion when naming organisms
* a good example of cooperation and collaboratio between scientists
What is a genus?
A group of species that share certain characteristics
What is a species?
A group of organisms that can freely interbreed to produce fertile offspring
Why is a mule infertile?
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse - they are infertile due to an uneven chromosome count
What does the word taxon (taxa) mean?
Taxon is greek and means a group of something
* Taxa is the plural
What is the trend going up the hierarchy of taxa?
- the taxa include larger and larger numbers of species, which share fewer and fewer features
What are the 2 main categories of organisms from taditional classification?
- Eukaryote and prokaryotes
- This clasificatio nis now regarded as inappropritate because the prokaryotes have been found to be very diverse
What are the 3 major categories of organisms now? What are the 3 domains called?
Domains: Eubacteria, Archae and Eukaryota
What are the 3 major categories of organisms now? What are the 3 domains called?
Domains: Eubacteria, Archae and Eukaryota
What are members of the domains usually referred to as?
Bacteria, archaens and eukaryotes
What are members of the domains usually referred to as?
Bacteria, archaens and eukaryotes
What are some features of the 3 main domains?
Where can archaens found?
In a broad range of habitats including:
* Ocean surface
* Deep ocean sediments
* Oil deposits far below the surface of the Earth
* Water with very high salt concentration
* Temperatures close to boiling
Why were fungi difficult to classify into plants or animals?
- they were originally classified as plants
- they have a similar root system (hyphae) and cell walls (chitin) instead of cellulose
- but they rely on other living organisms to feed because they lack chloroplasts
What is not classified in any of the 3 domains?
Viruses because they have too few of the characteristics of life to be regarded as living organisms