Taxonomy and Systematics Flashcards
systematics
science of diversity of organisms: scientific study o fthe kinds, diversity, and relationships among living things.
Taxon
A formally named biological group. Ex- bivalvia or mercenaria mercenaria
Taxonomy
Theory and practice of classifying organisms
Classification
Ordering organisms into classes by a taxonomist
The species
Has roots in “modern synthesis” of evoluntion.
+Species are groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups.
Reproductive Isolation
Populations of different species that live together, but don’t interbreed (ex- dogs and cats will never breed)
cladistics
a technique for constructing phylogenics by quantifying differences in character traits (derived characteristics) between different taxa.
clade
a taxonomic group that includes ancestral taxon and all of it’s descendants.
Homology
Shared trait from a common ancestor
Homoplasy
Independently acquired (or lost) train not due to a common ancestor.
Derived characteristics
apomorphies. Evolutionary novelties. New features acquired during the origin of a new new species not posessed by the ancestor.
G. G. Simpson and the evolutionary species concept.
A species is a lineage (ancestral-decendent sequence of populations) evolving from other lineages with it’s own evolutionary rules and tendencies.
The Linnean Hierarchy
Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species (Kings play cards on fat green stools)
Monophyletic group or clade
A group of taxa which share a unique common ancestor, along with this ancestor.
Paraphyletic
Some descendant are omitted from the group.
