Species and taxonomy Flashcards
What is the definition of a species?
A group of similar organisms who can reproduce to form fertile offspring.
What is the order of classification?
Domain, Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species
Why do classification systems change?
As a result of new evidence being found about known organisms and discoveries of new species.
What are the 8 groups of classification called?
Taxons
Which group of organisms are more closely related?
Species
What are the 3 domains?
Eukarya, Bacteria and Archaea
Is there overlap in the hierarchy?
NO overlap
What is phylogeny?
The evolutionary history of organisms.
What is the binomial naming system?
Genus with a capital letter followed by species with an lower case letter e.g Homo sapiens
What is courtship behaviour?
Carried out by organisms to attract a mate of the right species.
Give an example of courtship behaviour?
Releasing chemicals
Why is it important that courtship behaviour is species specific?
- Allows members of the same species to recognise each other
- Prevents interbreeding
- Makes reproduction more successful
How can courtship behaviour be used to classify organisms?
More similar the behaviour, more closely related the species is.
What is a genetic bottleneck?
An event that causes a big reduction in a population which reduces the number of different alleles and so reduces genetic diversity. The survivors reproduce and a larger population is created from a few individuals.
What is genetic diversity?
The number of different alleles of genes in a species or population.
