Classification Flashcards
what are the 5 Kingdoms
- animals (fish and mammals)
- plants (grasses and trees)
- fungi (mushrooms and yeasts)
- prokaryotes (all single celled organisms without a nucleus)
- protists (eukaryotic single celled organisms, like algae)
what were organisms originally classified by
- they were classified in accordance to their similarities and differences in physical characteristics
- as technology improved, you could see things with a microscope like cell structures
what were the physical characteristics used to do
- classify organisms in the five kingdom classification system
- in this system, living things are divided into 5 groups called kingdoms
what are the kingdoms divided into
- smaller and smaller groups that have common features
- they are phylum, class, order, family, genus and species
what has the development in technology allowed us to do
allowed our understanding of biochemical processes and genetics to increase
what has the development in technology allowed us to determine
- the sequence of DNA bases of different organisms genes and compare them
- the more similar the sequence of a gene, the more closely related the organism
- scientists are also able to determine RNA sequences in a similar way
what did the development in technology which allowed us to look closer into organisms cause
- a rethink about the way organisms are classified
- and the proposal of a three domain system by a scientist called carl woese
what did carl woese discover and what did it cause him to do
- using RNA sequencing
- he found out that some members of the prokaryote kingdom arent as closely related as we thought
- he proposed that the kingdom be split into 2 groups
- called archea and bacteria
what did carl actually suggest and what did it lead to
- he actually suggested in the creation of three large groups called domains
- archea, bacteria and lastly eukarya
describe the domain group archea
- organisms in this domain look similar to bacteria but are actually quite different
- as differences in their DNA and RNA sequences show
- they were first found in extreme places such as hot springs and salt lakes
describe the domain group bacteria
this domain group contains true bacteria such as e coli
describe the domain group eukarya
this domain includes a broad range of organisms including fungi, plants, animals and protists