Midterm 1 Part 2 Flashcards
What was a benefit of the Linnaean system of classification?
It brought order to naming animals, plants, and minerals. Before, people were just naming things whatever they wanted.
What is a disadvantage of the Linnaean system of classification?
Created a false sense of hierarchy in which some animal species were placed lower in “importance” and “significance” than others.
What are the vertebrate classes of animals?
Fish, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians
What is the new system of classification called?
Cladistics
What are some of the characteristics of the cladistic classification system?
Eliminates the hierarchy, doesn’t take rock dates into account, based on hypothesized relationships not artificial ranks (kingdom, phylum), and attempts to show relationships at all levels.
What is phylogeny?
The study of evolutionary relationships between different species. The two most common systems of classification are Linnaean (which is outdated) and Cladistics (cladograms)
What created the cladistics system?
Willi Hennig around the 1950’s
How are relationships between species determined using cladistics?
Based on evolutionary novelties that species have in common. IT is NOT based on overall similarity.
True or False: In cladistics, relationships are determined by derived characteristics.
True
What is a monophylitic polygenetic group?
A group of species/clades that include all its descendants. LIke if you drew a circle around a group of species and all their ancestors on a cladogram.
What is a paraphyletic polygenetic group?
A natural group of species/clades that does NOT include all its descendants/ancestors. Like if you removed a clade or two to emphasize others. Those relationships still exist, you’re just not displaying them.
What is a polyphyletic phylogenetic group?
A group of unrelated species/clades (or at least very dissimilar and far away on a cladogram). Technically all life is related if you go back far enough.
Who was Jacques Gauthier and what did he do for the world of dinosaurs?
He wrote a paper on cladistics and dinosaurs in 1986. This marked the start of everybody using the cladistics method in the dinosaur community.
What is left of the Linnaean system?
Only the genus and species rules. Everything else is basically dumb now.
True or False: Time is a factor used to determine cladograms.
False
In cladistics, what is the name of a group?
Clade
What is parallel evolution?
Closely related forms adapting to similar environments. Kind of like convergence, but convergence is more like bats and birds (two distinct species with a shared character) vs. kangaroo rats and gerboas that are similar in many ways.
Define plesiomorphic
The original state of a character. Like if a feature has been the same for every generation of that species.
What is the opposite of plesiomorphic?
Apomorphic - derived characters (evolutionary novelties) instead of the original characters.
Which museum was part of the Central Asiatic Expeditions?
American Museum of Natural History
Who led the expedition to Mongolia/China (the central Asiatic Expeditions)?
Roy Chapman - zoologist that worked for the American Museum of Natural History
When were the Central Asiatic Expeditions?
1921-1930
What were the most significant finds of the American Museum’s expeditions?
Oviraptors, Protoceratops, Velociraptor, and dinosaur eggs in nests.
Which museum led an expedition to Tendeguru, Tanzania, Africa?
Berlin Museum of Natural History
When were the expeditions to Africa?
1906-1912
Who was the “Indiana Jones” of the Berlin Museum’s expeditions?
Werner Janensch
What were the major finds of the Tanzania Africa expedition?
Dicreaesaurus, Kentrosaurus, Giraffititan, they discovered a lot of species that were similar to the Morrison formation (on the other side of the world) but found out they were not actually related.
Who is Edwin Colbert?
Worked for the museum of natural history, built complete skeletons I think? Ghost Ranch, New Mexico skeletons