Taxonomy Questions Flashcards
What are the 3 types of light microscopes?
Compound bright field, Stereo/dissecting, phase contrast
What are 2 advantages of light microscopes?
They can use living specimen, can use in vivo staining techniques
What are the 2 types of electron microscopes?
SEM & TEM
What are advantages of electron microscopes?
Very high magnification and resolution, used to view cell parts, microorganisms such as viruses, crystals, semiconductors in industry.
What are disadvantages of electron microscopes?
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.
What can a light microscope magnify to?
generally 1500x
What can an electron microscope magnify to?
2,000,000x
What are tasks of living cells?
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
What is an organelle?
A specialized structure within a cell within a cell with a specific function (e.g. nucleus)
What is a prokaryotic cell?
A cell that doesn’t have a nucleus or most other organelles (e.g. bacterial cell)
What is a eukaryotic cell?
A cell that has a nucleus and other types of organelles (e.g. plant cell)
What is a comparison between the two?
Most plants and animals are eukaryotes, prokaryotes do not have a nucleus. “pro” means before and “karyon” means nucleus
What is taxonomy?
Taxonomy is the sorting of species into groups based on similar structural features; therefore the more similar the species, the closer the relationship
What is binomial nomenclature?
A method of naming organisms by using a 2-part name: genus and species
What is the genus?
The genus is a relatively small group of related species to which an organism belongs
What is a species?
A group of organisms that look alike and can interbreed under natural conditions
What are the 6 kingdoms?
Eubacteria, Archaebacteria, Protista, Fungi, Animalia, Plantae
What is the Linnean System of Classification?
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
What is phylogeny?
The hypothesis about the evolutionary history of groups of organisms
What is a phylogenetic tree?
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
What are cladistics?
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
What are dichotomous keys?
They are used to help place organisms into the appropriate classification groups, there are always 2 choices for each characteristic
