Taxonomy Flashcards
What is Systemics?
Branch of biology that studies diversity and evolutionary relationships broadly, both of living and extinct organisms.
What is Taxonomy?
Branch of biology concerned with ordered division and naming of organisms.
What are 2 key features of Binomial Nomenclature?
- Species have a 2 part name
2. Species are organized hierarchically into broader and broader groups
3 rules for writing an organism’s name
- Genus name, species name
- only first letter of genus name is capitalized
- if typed, written in italics; if written, underlined, but not under space, and only if Latin.
eg. Homo sapien. (pretend underlined/italicized)
What are the levels of groupings of organisms?
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- Domain
- Kingdom
- Phylum
- Class
- Order
- Family
- Genus
- Species
What are the 3 Domains?
- Bacteria
- Archaea
- Eukarya
What do phylogenetic trees show?
show pattern of descent
What do phylogenetic trees not show?
- do not show length of time between nodes
- do not show amount of genetic change between nodes
- do not show that species did not evolve from neighboring species
What are sister taxa?
Are 2 species that share immediate ancestor
What is a basal taxon?
Is oldest species from common ancestor -> longest branch that hasn’t changed
What is polytomy in a phylogenetic tree?
Polytomy is when you have more than 2 species that come from same immediate ancestor
What does a Rooted tree signify?
If a tree has a root it means we know what the common ancestor is; if it does not, we are unsure
What is a Branch point/node?
Branch point is the divergence of species
What is a clade?
Clade is a group of species that includes common ancestor and all descendants
What is a Shared Ancestral Character?
Is a character that originated in a shared ancestor of taxon
eg. backbone in all vertebrates
