Taxonomy and systematics

Question 1

Why is classification needed?

Answer 1

Due to very large numbers of species yet to be identified.

Diseases need identifying to understand how to treat them and decide what is safe to eat

Question 2

How are organisms classified?

Answer 2

Each species is given a unique identifier to tell us how species relate

Only way to census the world’s flora and fauna (giving them names)

Question 3

Aristotle and Classification

Answer 3

Grouped living things as either plants or animals

Dividing animals into three groups (land/water/air) and plants based on differences in their stems

Question 4

Linnaeus and Classification

Answer 4

Devised a system of grouping organisms into a hierarchy and a system for naming, ranking and classifying organisms.

Question 5

What is the binomial naming system?

Answer 5

Two-part Latin name

Genus species

Question 6

What were the original seven taxa?

Answer 6

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species

Question 7

What are the three domains?

Answer 7

Archaebacteria
Eubacteria
Eukaryota

Question 8

Some new conventions

Answer 8

Using family to reflect species that shared common ancestry (a certain rank has a particular time of death)

Using family to reflect species that share X% sequence identity (amount of molecular divergence)

Question 9

What are ring species?

Answer 9

Form when there is an impenetrable barrier around which the ring forms

Question 10

Gulls as an example of a ring species

Answer 10

Seven subspecies with a circumpolar distribution

Herring species and Lesser Black-backed are different species that do not interbreed (both found in the UK)

As you travel around the ring subspecies interbreed