Chapter 19 + 20 test Flashcards
______________ is a system of naming and classifying organisms based on shared characteristics and universal rules
Taxonomy
In ___________________, each species is assigned a two-part scientific name
Binomial Nomenclature
The science of naming and grouping organisms is called __________________
Systematics
What is the goal of systematics
The main goal of systematics is to organize living things into groups that have biological meaning
Linnaeus developed a classification system that organized species into taxa based on similarities and differences he could see. List the seven hierarchical taxa included in his original classification system
Species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom
The total number of kingdoms is now six. The six-kingdom system of classification includes the kingdoms________, __________, ____________, ___________, ____________, ___________
Eubacteria, Protista, Plantae, Archaebacteria, fungi, Animalia
A Domain is even larger than a kingdom. What are the three domains?
The 3 domains are Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya
_______________ is the study of the evolutionary history of lineage of organisms
Phylogeny
What is the goal of evolutionary classification?
To order and classify all living things
A ___________ is a group of species that includes a single common ancestor and all descendants of that ancestor–living and extinct.
Clade
A ______________ links groups of organisms by showing current hypotheses about how evolutionary lines, or lineages, branched off from common ancestors.
Cladogram
Cladistic analysis focuses on certain kinds of characters, called derived characters. What is a derived character?
A derived character is a trait that arises in the most recent common ancestor of a lineage and was passed to its descendants
Modern biologists want classification systems to represent the _________________ among organisms. Accurate understanding of those relationships can be very helpful in comparing and contrasting _____________among and between clades.
Evolutionary Relationships/Characteristics
In general, the more _________________ two species share, the more recently they shared a common ancestor and the more closely they are related in evolutionary terms.
Derived Genetic Characteristics
The __________ illustrates current hypotheses regarding evolutionary relationships among the taxa within the three domains of life
tree of all life
Fossils provide vital information about __________ species - species that have died out.
extinct
Most fossils are preserved in ___________. Sedimentary rock usually forms when small particles of sand, when small particles of sand, silt, clay, or lime settle to the bottom of a body of water.
sedimentary rocks
Fossils reveal information about the structures of ancient organisms, the sequential nature of groups in the fossil record, __________, and the ecology of ancient environments.
Evolution from common ancestors
____________ helps paleontologists to determine whether a fossil is older or younger than other fossils.
Relative Dating
_____ are distinctive fossils used to establish and compare the relative age of rock layers and the fossils they contain.
Index fossils
___________ relies on radioactive isotopes, which decay or break down into stable isotopes at a steady rate.
radiometric dating
A ____ is the time required for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay
half life
The _________ is based on both relative and absolute dating.
geologic time scale
The major divisions of the geologic time scale are _____,_____, and ___________.
eons, eras, and periods
The theory of _____________ explains the movement of continents and oceans.
Plate tectonics
Global climate change, mountain building, the emergence of islands, __________, changes in levels of continents and oceans, and meteor impacts have altered Earth’s habitats, with major effects on the history of life.
continental drift
The actions of ____________ over time have changed conditions in the atmosphere, the oceans, and the land.
living organisms
Major transformations in anatomy, phylogeny, ecology, and behavior, which usually take place in larger clades, are known as ______________.
macroevolutionary patterns
Species become extinct when they fail to adapt to competition and changing environments. Paleontologists describe this kind of “business as usual” extinction as _______________.
background extinction
In a ____________, a large number of species become extinct over a relatively short time.
mass extinction
Fossil evidence supports the hypothesis that ______________ can occur at different rates in different clades, and at different times.
evolution
Darwin suggested that evolution proceeded slowly and steadily, an idea called _________________.
gradualism
Now and then, the fossil record shows that equilibrium can be interrupted by brief periods of geologically rapid change. This pattern is called ____________.
punctuated equilibrium
Two important patterns of macroevolution are _________________ and ______________.
adaptive radiation and convergent evolution
Define adaptive radiation
Adaptive radiation is a process where one single species evolves into multiple distinctive species
The appearance of similar characteristics in unrelated organisms is known as ____________
convergent evolution
The process by which two species evolve in response to changes in each other over time is called _______________
coevolution
About _______________ years ago, Earth cooled enough to allow solid rocks to form.
4.2 billion
Earth’s early atmosphere contained little or no _____________. It was mainly composed of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and nitrogen, with smaller amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, and hydrogen cyanide
oxygen
Miller and Urey’s experiment suggests that ______________ necessary for life could have arisen from simpler compounds on a primitive Earth
organic compounds
The “RNA world” hypothesis proposes that _________ existed before DNA. From this simple RNA-based system, several steps could have led to today’s DNA-directed protein synthesis.
RNA
The oldest eukaryotic cell fossils have been found in rocks __________ years old.
2.1 billion
The ____________, developed in the 1960s by Lynn Margulis of the University of Massachusetts, proposes that organelles in eukaryotic cells were formed when different types of cells joined in a kind of merger.
endosymbiotic theory
