Classification Flashcards
What is classification?
The process by which living things are sorted into groups. The organisms within the group share similar features
What is taxonomy?
The study of the principles behind classification
What is phylogeny?
The study of how closely related species are, looking at evolutionary relationships
Why do scientists classify organisms?
- to identify species
- to predict characteristics
- to find evolutionary links
What are the types of Linnaean classification?
- kingdom
- phylum
- class
- order
- family
- genus
- species
what is a species?
A group of organisms that are avid to reproduce to produce fertile offspring
What does viable mean
the organism produced survives but it is not capable of producing offspring
Why are the offspring of different species infertile?
Because their cells contain an off number of chromosomes
When does having an odd number of chromosomes become a problem?
During meiosis as all chromosomes have to pair up
What are the 2 parts of the names all species are given?
- first word is the organisms genus (generic name)
- second word is the organisms species (specific name)
How do you write a species binomial nomenclature?
- genus always starts with a capital letter and species starts with a small letter
- if typed them it should be in italics
- is handwritten it should always be underlined
Explain what is meant by a hierarchical classification?
Grouping things based on similarities
Describe one way in which different species may be distinguished
different species can’t reproduce fertile offspring
Suggest some sources of evidence which scientists may have used to classify cheetahs and leopards into different species?
- common ancestors
- fossil evidence
- genomes/DNA
- characteristics
What has been the evolution of the five kingdoms?
- it used to be only two kingdoms, animal and plant
- as tech improves so did scientific knowledge
- this allowed what had been the plant kingdom to be separated out
