Chapter 15 Flashcards
The science of naming and classifying organisms
Taxonomy
Linnaeus’s two-word system for naming organisms.
Binomial nomenclature
A taxonomic category containing similar species
Genus
A taxonomic group containing genera.
Family
A taxonomic group containing families.
Order
A taxonomic group containing orders.
Class
A taxonomic group containing classes.
Phylum
A taxonomic group containing phyla.
Kingdom
A group of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups.
Biological species
A process when organisms evolve similar features independently, often because they live in similar habitats.
Convergent evolution
Similar features that evolved through convergent evolution.
Analogous characters
The evolutionary history of a species
Phylogeny
A system of taxonomy that reconstructs phylogenies by inferring relationships based on similarities
Cladistics
Unique characteristics found in a particular group of organisms.
Derived traits
A branching diagram. constructed through cladistics which shows the evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms.
Cladogram
