classification Flashcards
Classification
grouping of organisms or objects based on a set of criteria that helps organize, communicate, and retain information
Taxon
named group of organisms , such as a phylum, genus, or species
Binomial nomenclature
Linnaeus’s system of naming organisms, which gives a scientific two-word Latin name to each species- the first part is the genus name and the second is the specific epithet
Archaea
prokaryotes whose cells walls don’t contain peptidoglycan
Genus
A taxonomic category ranking used in biological classification that is below a family and above a species level, and includes group(s) of species that are structurally similar or phylogenetically related.
Family
A taxonomic rank in the classification of organisms between genus and order
Order
a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized by the nomenclature codes. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family.
Class
taxonomic group that contains one or more related orders
Protists
eukaryotic organisms that cannot be classified as a plant, animal, or fungus. They are mostly unicellular, but some, like algae, are multicellular
Division
taxonomic term used instead of phylum to group related classes of plants and bacteria
Phylogeny
pertains to the evolutionary history of a taxonomic group of organisms. Thus, phylogenetics is mainly concerned with the relationships of an organism to other organisms according to evolutionary similarities and differences
Domain
taxonomic group of one or more kingdoms
Molecular clock
a technique that uses the mutation rate of biomolecules to deduce the time in prehistory when two or more life forms diverged
Characters
inherited morphological or biochemical feature that varies among species and can be used to determine patterns of descent
Cladistics
taxonomic method that model evolutionary relationships based on shared derived characteristics and phylogenetics trees
