Classification Flashcards
What is biodiversity
A measure of the variety of living organisms and their genetic differences
Why classify?
Scientists needed an internationally recognised way of referring to a particular living organism
What is taxonomy
The science of describing, classifying and naming living organisms
What are the 3 domains
Archaea
Bacteria
Eukaryota
Archaea kingdom
Archaebacteria
Bacteria kingdom
Eubacteria
Eukaryotic kingdoms
Protoctista
Fungi
Plantae
Animalia
Who originally used the binomial naming system
Linnaeus
What was the morphological species concept
A way of defining species developed by Linnaeus based solely on the appearance of the organisms he observed
What is the biological species concept
A model of species based on the reproductive behaviour of the organisms - this overcomes sexual dimorphism
If two individuals from different populations mate, they are considered the same species if fertile offspring are produced
Ecological species model
Based on the ecological niche occupied by an organism
Mate recognition species model
Based on unique fertilisation systems including mating behaviour
Genetic species model
Based on DNA evidence
Evolutionary species model
Based on shared evolutionary relationships between species
Limitations of species models
Finding the evidence - many species have never been observed mating
Plants of different but closely related species frequently interbreed and produce fertile hybrids
Many organisms do not reproduce sexually
Fossil organisms cannot reproduce and do not have accessible DNA
Why is DNA sequencing important in classification
Leads to DNA profiling which identifies patterns that can be used to identify relationships between individuals and between species
What is bioinformatics
The development of the software and computing tools needed to organise and analyse raw biological data to help us make sense of the enormous quantities of data being generated
The caviar con
Scientists ran DNA profiles on tins of caviar and discovered around 25% of the tins claiming to be beluga caviar (the most expensive) actually contained eggs of other less prestigious species
What is DNA barcoding
The identification of a species by the characteristic sequence of a standard short section of DNA in its genome
