Taxonomy Questions

Question 1

What are the 3 types of light microscopes?

Answer 1

Compound bright field, Stereo/dissecting, phase contrast

Question 2

What are 2 advantages of light microscopes?

Answer 2

They can use living specimen, can use in vivo staining techniques

Question 3

What are the 2 types of electron microscopes?

Answer 3

SEM & TEM

Question 4

What are advantages of electron microscopes?

Answer 4

Very high magnification and resolution, used to view cell parts, microorganisms such as viruses, crystals, semiconductors in industry.

Question 5

What are disadvantages of electron microscopes?

Answer 5

Very expensive to build and maintain, require a high level of skill to use, subject to vibration and external magnetic fields (usually built underground), specimen is often destroyed in sample preparation, sample must be viewed in a vacuum as air will scatter the electrons.

Question 6

What can a light microscope magnify to?

Answer 6

generally 1500x

Question 7

What can an electron microscope magnify to?

Answer 7

2,000,000x

Question 8

What are tasks of living cells?

Answer 8

To obtain food and energy, convert energy from outside the cell into a usable form inside the cell, construct cell structures from molecules, chemical reactions, eliminate waste, reproduce

Question 9

What is an organelle?

Answer 9

A specialized structure within a cell within a cell with a specific function (e.g. nucleus)

Question 10

What is a prokaryotic cell?

Answer 10

A cell that doesn’t have a nucleus or most other organelles (e.g. bacterial cell)

Question 11

What is a eukaryotic cell?

Answer 11

A cell that has a nucleus and other types of organelles (e.g. plant cell)

Question 12

What is a comparison between the two?

Answer 12

Most plants and animals are eukaryotes, prokaryotes do not have a nucleus. “pro” means before and “karyon” means nucleus

Question 13

What is taxonomy?

Answer 13

Taxonomy is the sorting of species into groups based on similar structural features; therefore the more similar the species, the closer the relationship

Question 14

What is binomial nomenclature?

Answer 14

A method of naming organisms by using a 2-part name: genus and species

Question 15

What is the genus?

Answer 15

The genus is a relatively small group of related species to which an organism belongs

Question 16

What is a species?

Answer 16

A group of organisms that look alike and can interbreed under natural conditions

Question 17

What are the 6 kingdoms?

Answer 17

Eubacteria, Archaebacteria, Protista, Fungi, Animalia, Plantae

Question 18

What is the Linnean System of Classification?

Answer 18

When each kingdom is divided into progressively smaller groups known as taxa, the subdivision from kingdom to species is as follows: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species

Question 19

What is phylogeny?

Answer 19

The hypothesis about the evolutionary history of groups of organisms

Question 20

What is a phylogenetic tree?

Answer 20

Phylogenetic trees show the relationships among various species, the common ancestor is at the base of the “tree” and the upper ends of the branches represent present day species

Question 21

What are cladistics?

Answer 21

A classification system based on phylogeny, related species come from a common ancestor and retain ancestral characteristics, they are similar to a phylogenetic tree but are called cladograms

Question 22

What are dichotomous keys?

Answer 22

They are used to help place organisms into the appropriate classification groups, there are always 2 choices for each characteristic