Topic 2

Question 1

What is Scala Nature? Who created it?

Answer 1

A scale made by Aristotle that showed the rankings of organisms. It was not phylogenetic.

Question 2

What is nomenclature?

Answer 2

A system of rules for naming things

Question 3

What is taxonomy?

Answer 3

The practice of naming and classifying organisms

Question 4

What are systematics?

Answer 4

The theory and practice of classifying organisms based on evolutionary history

Question 5

What was the Linnenan System?

Answer 5

A system that classified organisms into Kingdoms, Phylum, Class, Order, Family and Genus. This was based on similarities

Question 6

What are phylogenetic trees?

Answer 6

Hypotheses for evolutionary relationships

Question 7

What is a taxon?

Answer 7

A named group at any level of classification

Question 8

What is a clade?

Answer 8

A valid group includes the ancestor at any node and all of its descendants

Question 9

What are sister taxa?

Answer 9

Taxa that share a common ancestor

Question 10

Can phylogenetic trees rotate?

Answer 10

Yes they can like a mobile. Its important to look at the relationships, not the structure of the tree

Question 11

What is an In-Group?

Answer 11

Groups whose relationships interested in untangling

Question 12

What is an Out-Group?

Answer 12

One or more taxa that are distantly related to the ingroup but have diverged from it at an earlier time

Question 13

What is a character?

Answer 13

Type of structure, behavior, DNA sequence, etc.

Question 14

What is a state?

Answer 14

The expression of a character

Question 15

What is the principle of parsimony?

Answer 15

Choose the phylogeny with the fewest number of evolutionary events, because it is more probable

Question 16

What is an event?

Answer 16

Change from ancestral state

Question 17

What is a synapomorphy?

Answer 17

A shared, derived state

Question 18

What is a derived state?

Answer 18

The current organisms has this trait but its ancestors do not

Question 19

What is an ancestral state?

Answer 19

The current organism and its ancestors had this trait

Question 20

What is symplesiomorphy?

Answer 20

A shared, ancestral state. These are not useful for phylogenetic trees

Question 21

What is a homologous trait?

Answer 21

A trait that looks the same and has the same evolutionary origin

Question 22

What is an analogous trait?

Answer 22

A trait that looks the same but actually evolved independently

Question 23

What is convergent evolution?

Answer 23

When organisms independently evolve similar traits

Question 24

What are molecular phylogenetics?

Answer 24

Matching of bases in gene sequences between species. The more matches means the closer related species are.

Question 25

what does monophyletic mean?

Answer 25

Contains a common ancestor and all of its descendant and no other unrelated taxa

Question 26

What does paraphyletic mean?

Answer 26

Groups that do not contain all of the descendants of a common ancestor. Usually caused when taxa who are very dissimilar to the rest are removed

Question 27

What does polyphyletic mean?

Answer 27

Taxa get lumped together even though they do not share recent common ancestors