Classifying Organisms

Phylogenetics

________: reconstructing the evolutionary relationships among organisms.

Cladistic approach

________: compares homologous traits, also called characters**,** which may exist in two or more character states.

Taxonomy

________: science of describing, naming, and classifying living and extinct organisms and viruses.

eukarya

All of life belongs to one of 3 domains: bacteria, archaea, and ________.

Systematics

________: study of biological diversity and the evolutionary relationships among organisms, both extinct and modern.

Taxon

________: each group at any level

Systematists

________ use fossil, molecular, and genetic data to infer evolutionary relationships.

Taxonomy

science of describing, naming, and classifying living and extinct organisms and viruses

Systematics

study of biological diversity and the evolutionary relationships among organisms, both extinct and modern

Taxon

each group at any level is called a taxon

Domain

the highest level

All of life belongs to one of 3 domains

bacteria, archaea, and eukarya

Phylogenetics

reconstructing the evolutionary relationships among organisms

Cladistic approach

compares homologous traits, also called characters**,** which may exist in two or more character states

Shared primitive character or symplesio-morphy

shared by two or more different taxa and inherited from ancestors older than their last common ancestor

Shared derived character or synapo-morpy

shared by two or more species or taxa and has originated in their most recent common ancestor