General Biology Exam 2

Question 1

• Developed in the Middle Ages and used until the mid- 1700s
• added descriptive phrases to the name of the genus to describe a particular kind of organism, which they called a species
• cumbersome and inconsistent (subject to change over time)

Answer 1

Polynomial System

Question 2

-developed by Carl Linnaeus in the 1700s; began as a shorthand system
-two part Latin names for each species
#first-part identifies the genus to which the species belongs
#second part distinguishes that particular species from other species in the genus
-universally employed by biologists (constant point of reference)
-scientific name
-improvement over the polynomial system and over the use of common names (vary)

Answer 2

Binomial System

Question 3

a group of organisms at a particular level in a classification system

Answer 3

Taxon

Question 4

• domain
• kingdom
• phylum
• class
• order
• family
• genus
• species

Answer 4

Taxa listed from the most general to the most specific

Question 5

uppercase, italicized or underlined; can be abbreviated

Answer 5

genus

Question 6

lowercase, italicized or underlined; always appears with genus

Answer 6

species

Question 7

groups of organisms that

• remain relatively constant in their characteristics
• differ from one another in recognizable ways
• generally do not interbreed with one another in nature

Answer 7

biological concept

Question 8

a single lineage of populations that maintains its distinctive identity from other such lineages (applies to both asexual and sexually reproducing forms; includes fossil specimens

Answer 8

evolutionary concept

Question 9

the reconstruction and study of phylogenies

Answer 9

systematics

Question 10

an evolutionary tree, that infers evolutionary relationships, based on similarities between groups of organisms

Answer 10

phylogeny

Question 11

structural similarities between organisms

Answer 11

morphological features

Question 12

similar features but not from the same evolutionary line

Answer 12

analogus

Question 13

from the same evolutionary line, reflect common ancestry

Answer 13

homologous

Question 14

• based on vast amounts of information
• characters weighted based on assumed importance
• relative length of branches corresponds to evolutionary time
• more subjective, judgement and bias

Answer 14

traditional taxonomy

Question 15

• focuses on key characters that a group of organisms share
• evolutionary relationships based on derived characters from a shared common ancestor
• branch lengths do not correspond to evolutionary time
• more objective

Answer 15

cladistics