A3.1 Diversity of organisms

Question 1

what are the different ways to classify organisms?

Answer 1

habitat(land-dwelling/aquatic); movement(sessile stuck in one place/free moving); daily activity(nocturnal/diurnal)

Question 2

what is morphology?

Answer 2

physical appearance of an organism

Question 3

what is a taxon?

Answer 3

each category that organisms are based on

Question 4

what is taxonomy?

Answer 4

the science and skill of categorizing life

Question 5

when is discontinuous variation?

Answer 5

when variation can be placed into distinct categories eg type A blood v type B blood

Question 6

when is continuous variation?

Answer 6

when variation has a wide range of possibilities eg how tall a tree can grow

Question 7

who made the morphological classification system and when?

Answer 7

Carl Linnaeus in the 18th century

Question 8

what is the system of naming organisms using 2 names called?

Answer 8

binomial nomenclature (genus then species)

Question 9

what are the 3 main rules for binomial nomenclature?

Answer 9

each organism has a unique name; names are universally understood; people can’t change the names of organisms

Question 10

what is a species according to the biological species concept and who made it?

Answer 10

a group of organisms that can breed to produce fertile offspring-Ernst Mayr

Question 11

what are the problems with the biological species concept?

Answer 11

organisms that reproduce asexually and don’t breed?some hybrids aren’t infertile?some species are made up of a mosaic of DNA from multiple species & extinct species