Systematics and Phylogenies

Question 1

Why do we need a comprehensive classification system?

Answer 1

there are a lot of species out there. This helps us organize and helps us better understand evolutionary relationships

Question 2

What is systematics?

Answer 2

study of evolutionary relationships

Question 3

What is phylogeny?

Answer 3

an organism’s evolutionary history and its relationships

Question 4

What is a phylogenetic tree?

Answer 4

visual depiction of phylogeny, which is used as a hypothesis to understand relationships

Question 5

Who has the first idea of phylogeny?

Answer 5

Darwin

Question 6

What are the two types of phylogenetic trees?

Answer 6

rooted and unrooted

Question 7

What are the three domains?

Answer 7

Bacteria, Archea, and Eukarya

Question 8

What is the root of a phylogenetic tree?

Answer 8

ancestral lineage giving rise to all organisms on the tree

Question 9

What is the branch point of a phylogenetic tree?

Answer 9

where two lineages diverged

Question 10

What is the basal taxon of a phylogenetic tree?

Answer 10

lineage that evolved early and remains unbranched

Question 11

What is the sister taxon of a phylogenetic tree?

Answer 11

two lineages stem from the same branch point

Question 12

What is the polytomy of a phylogenetic tree?

Answer 12

a branch with more than two lineages

Question 13

What is another name for phylogeny?

Answer 13

cladogram

Question 14

What is taxon?

Answer 14

a named taxonomic unit at any given level of classification

Question 15

What do phylogenies depict?

Answer 15

evolutionary relationships

Question 16

What are the types of taxonomy? (??)

Answer 16

levels of classification, binomial nomenclature, taxon (taxa plural form)

Question 17

What are the levels of classification in order?

Answer 17

domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, subspecies

Question 18

What is binomial nomenclature?

Answer 18

/Genus species/

Question 19

What are derived characteristics?

Answer 19

a similarity that is inherited from the most recent common ancestor of an entire group

Question 20

What are ancestral (traits)?

Answer 20

a similarity that arose prior to the common ancestor of the group

Question 21

What is the only thing considered informative about evolutionary relationships?

Answer 21

derived characteristics

Question 22

What characteristics can cladistics use?

Answer 22

any aspect of the phenotype (morphology, behavior, DNA, physiology)

Question 23

What is the most reliable characteristic used for cladistics?

Answer 23

DNA

Question 24

How should the characters exist in cladistics?

Answer 24

recognizable character states

Question 25

What does amniote mean?

Answer 25

terrestrial

Question 26

What is an ancestral characteristic?

Answer 26

is older in terms of when it emerged in that particular lineage

Question 27

What is a derived characteristic?

Answer 27

is more recent in terms of when it emerged in that particular lineage

Question 28

In terms of all animals, what kind of characteristic is hair?

Answer 28

derived

Question 29

In terms of all animals, what kind of characteristic are lungs?

Answer 29

ancestral

Question 30

What is a cordat(a)?

Answer 30

they have a nerve cord and a hard rod

Question 31

In terms of all animals, what kind of characteristic is teeth?

Answer 31

ancestral

Question 32

In terms of all animals, what kind of characteristic is absence of teeth?

Answer 32

derived

Question 33

What is a clade?

Answer 33

a species or group of species that share a common ancestor as indicated by the possession of shared derived characters; a common ancestor and all descendants

Question 34

What do all organisms within a clade stem from?

Answer 34

a single point

Question 35

What is a monophyletic group?

Answer 35

synonymous with a clade, an ancestral species and all its descendents

Question 36

What is a paraphyletic group?

Answer 36

consists of ancestral species and some (not all) of its descendants

Question 37

What can you use to define a paraphyletic group?

Answer 37

things like whether they are extinct, have wings, etc

Question 38

What is a polyphyletic group?

Answer 38

consists of a grouping of species but does not include the most recent common ancestor; species within this group may not be very closely related

Question 39

What is an outgroup?

Answer 39

species (or group) from an evolutionary line that is closely related to but not part of the group of interest

Question 40

What is the principle of parsimony?

Answer 40

"Occam's razor," shaving away unnecessary complications

Question 41

The most parsimonious tree ________.

Answer 41

requires the fewest evolutionary events

Question 42

What are shared ancestral characters?

Answer 42

one found in the ancestor of a group because all members of the taxon/clade have it

Question 43

What are shared derived characters?

Answer 43

trait possessed by some members (or a certain clade) of the lineage, but not all.