Phylogeny Vocab Flashcards
Phylogeny
Evolutionary history of a species or group.
Systematics
Classifies organisms and determines their evolutionary relationships
Taxonomy
The ordered division and naming of organisms
Binomial Nomenclature
two name naming system
Binomial
Two part specific name
Classification
genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, and domain
Domain
many kingdoms in a domain, many phylums in a kingdom, many classes in a phylum, many orders in a class, many families in a order, many genuses in a family
Taxon
a taxonomic unit at any level of hierarchy
Phylogenetic trees
the branching of common ancestry
Branch Point
represents the divergence of two species
Sister taxa
groups of organisms that share an immediate common ancestor
Rooted tree
includes a branch to represent the last common ancestor of all the taxa in the tree
Basal Taxon
a lineage that diverges early from all the other lineages in the history of a group
Polytomy
a branch point from which more than two descendant groups emerge
Monophology
classifying things based on their structures
Homology
genetic similarities due to shared ancestry
Analogy
similarity due to convergent evolution
Convergent evolution
evolution toward similar characteristics in unrelated species
Cladistics
Classifications based on common ancestry
Clades
ancestral species and all of its descendants
Monophyletic
an ancestral species and all of its descendants
Paraphyletic
an ancestral species and some of its descendants
Shared ancestral character
a character that originated in an ancestor of the taxon (jaw)
Shared derived character
evolutionary novelty unique to a clade (hair in mammals)
Shared derived character
evolutionary novelty unique to a clade (hair in mammals)
Outgroup
group of species that is closely related to the ingroup
Ingroup
the various species studied
Maximum parsimony
assumes that the tree requires the fewest evolutionary events is the most likely
Molecular clock
Model that uses DNA comparisons to estimate the length of time that two species have been evolving independently
Horizontal gene transfer
the transfer of genes from one one genome to another through mechanisms such as transposable elements, plasmid exchange, viral activity, and perhaps fusions of different organisms
Convergent Evolution
different species evolve similarity in the same type of environment (eg, sharks & dolphins have similar traits, but evolved independently)
Homoplasy
similar (analogous) structure or molecular sequence that has evolved independently
