Classification Flashcards
What is biodiversity?
A measure of the variety of living organisms and their genetic differences
What are the 8 levels of classification?
Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
Why do we classify?
To have an internationally recognised way to refer to any particular living organism and understand how different types of living organisms are related to each other
What is taxonomy?
The science of describing, classifying and naming organisms
What are the 3 domains?
Archaea, Bacteria, Eukaryota
What are the 5 kingdoms and what does kingdom mean?
Animal, Plant, Fungi, Protist, Prokaryote
-a large group of organisms with few characteristics in common
What is a species?
A group of organisms that freely interbreed to produce fertile offspring and where genes can flow between the organisms
-a small group of organisms with lots of characteristics in common
What is a breed?
A group of animals of the same species that have different characteristics that make them different to other members of that species
What is a variety?
A group of plants of the same species that have different characteristics that make them different to other members of that species
How do you use the binomial system?
-The first name is the genus (uppercase letter)
-The second name is the species (lowercase letter)
-Must be written in italics
What are the limitations of species models?
-Finding the evidence is time consuming and expensive to set up a breeding programme
-Many organisms do not reproduce sexually
-Fossil organisms cannot reproduce and
often do not have accessible DNA but they still need to be classified
Why do we need to identify individual species?
-Understand the biodiversity of an ecosystem and try to protect it
-Understand evolutionary history
-Work out if a species is pathogenic and may lead to a pandemic
-Test for food contamination
What is the hierarchy of taxonomy?
-Consists of a series of groups within groups
-No overlap between groups
-The groups are based on shared features
What do scientists use to classify?
-Anatomical/physical features
-Fossil evidence
-Biochemical analysis of proteins
-Biochemical analysis of DNA
How is new evidence for evolution validated?
By the scientific community when it is submitted to a scientific journal to be peer reviewed by experts in the field