OCR A-level Biology- classification

what are the 5 kingdoms

animalia, plantae, protoctista, fungi, bacteria

what is taxonomy

the study and practise of naming and classifying species and groups of species within the hierarchical classification scheme

binomial system

a system of naming species in which each species has two names, genus and species

what is a species

a group of similar organisms that can successfully breed together to produce fertile offspring

what is a hierarchy

a series of large groups split into smaller groups with no overlaps

what are examples of courtship behaviour

releasing a chemical/using sounds/colour displays/visual displays/dancing/building nests/building shelters

what are the 7 domains

domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species

what are key features of organisms in the kingdom animalia

multicellular/no cell wall/eukaryotic/hertrotrophic/flagellum/cilia/glycogen food store

what are key features of organisms in the kingdom plantae

multicellular/cellulose cell wall/eukaryotic/autotrophic/cells don’t move/starch food store

what are key features of an organism in the kingdom prokaryotic

unicellular/peptidoglycan cell wall/prokaryotic/no feeding mechanism/no food store

what are key features of organisms in the kingdom fungi

multicellular and unicellular/ chitin cell wall/no movement/saprotrophic/glycogen food store/hyphae

what are the features of the organisms in the kingdom Protoctista

mostly unicellular/no cell wall/eukaryotic/some autotrophic/some heterotrophic

what are the 3 domains

archea, eukarya and prokarya

what is phylogeny

the grouping of organisms based on their evolutionary relationship using common ancestry

what is phylogenetics

the study of the evolutionary relationship of groups of organisms

what is a phylogenetic tree

a diagram showing the phylogeny of groups of organisms through branching

what are ways of classifying organisms based on evolutionary relationships

comparing base sequences of DNA/mRNA/comparing amino acid sequences/immunological comparisons

how do you compare the base sequence of DNA of different organisms

analyse the base sequence and the higher the percentage of similarity in the order of the bases then the more closely related they are

how do you compare the amino acid sequence of proteins

you look at specific proteins and the amino acid sequencing, the higher the similarity between the amino acid sequences the more closely related the organisms are

how do you use immunological comparison to investigate the similarity between organisms

you can look at the antibodies produced and compare the variable regions to see whether the antibodies bind to the proteins

what is a gene

a section of DNA

what is an allele

different forms of the same gene

what is a genotype

a combination of alleles in the organisms genetic makeup

what is a phenotype

the observable characteristics of an organism influenced by genotype and the environment

what is a mutation

a mutation is a change in the base sequence of an organism

what is a selective pressure

an evolutionary force that makes one phenotype favourable

what is paleontology

the study of fossils and fossil records

what is comparitive anatomy

the study of similarities and differences between organisms anatomy

what is comparative biochemistry

the study of similarities and differences between the chemical makeup of organisms

what is creatonism

the theory that everything in the universe is a result of divine creation

who was Charles Lyell

a geologist who challenged creationism suggesting instead that all features of the Earth’s surface were produced by physical, chemical and biological process over time

who was Charles Darwin

a scientist who proposed the theory or evolution by natural selection after taking part in a voyage around the world specifically in the Galapagos islands

who was Alfred Russel Wallace

a scientist who travelled around South America and South East Asia developing ideas about the theory of evolution

what were Darwin’s four observations

individuals aren’t identical/more offspring are born than can survive/only the survivors with advantageous characteristics will reproduce/traits are passed from parents to offspring

what is intraspecific variation

variation between members of the same species

what is interspecific variation

variation between members of different species

what is continuous data

data that can take any value and is quantitative

what is discrete data

categoric data that is qualitative

what are the two causes of variation

genetic and environmental

what is genetic variation

variation inherited from your parents due to different alleles or mutations e.g crossing over, random fertilisation

what is environmental variation

variation caused by environmental factors e.g. sunlight causing a tan

what is standard deviation

the amount of variance from the mean

what is a t-test

a statistical test calculated to see if there is a significant difference between mean values

what is a null hypothesis

states that there is no significant difference

what is an alternative hypothesis

states that there is a significant difference

what do you do if t is less than the critical value

accept the null hypothesis

what do you do if t is larger than the critical value

you reject the null hypothesis

what is a polygenic trait

a trait produced from the cumulative effect of many genes

what are analogous structures

features of different organisms that are similar in function

what are homologous structures

similar structures that evolve from a common ancestor to perform different functions

what is correlation

a relationship between two variables