The Living World

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the fundamentals of biological diversity, the work of Ernst Mayr, binomial nomenclature, and the taxonomic hierarchy as described in the lecture notes.

Biology

The science of life forms and living processes.

Ernst Mayr

A Harvard University evolutionary biologist ($1904-2004$) known as ‘The Darwin of the $20\text{th}$ century’ who pioneered the biological species definition.

Triple Crown of Biology

Three prestigious prizes awarded to Ernst Mayr: the Balzan Prize ($1983$), the International Prize for Biology ($1994$), and the Crafoord Prize ($1999$).

Biodiversity

The total number and types of organisms present on earth, with known species ranging between $1.7-1.8$ million.

Nomenclature

The process of standardising the naming of living organisms so that a particular organism is known by the same name all over the world.

Identification

The process of correctly describing an organism and determining to which known organism a name is attached.

ICBN

International Code for Botanical Nomenclature; the set of principles and criteria used for providing scientific names to plants.

ICZN

International Code of Zoological Nomenclature; the system evolved by taxonomists for naming animals.

Binomial Nomenclature

A naming system developed by Carolus Linnaeus where each scientific name has two components: the Generic name and the specific epithet.

Generic Name

The first word in a biological name, which starts with a capital letter and represents the genus.

Specific Epithet

The second word in a biological name, which starts with a small letter and identifies the specific species.

Taxonomy

The process of classification based on the characteristics of living organisms, involving characterisation, identification, classification, and nomenclature.

Systematics

A branch of study derived from the Latin word ‘systema’ that accounts for evolutionary relationships between organisms.

Taxon

A scientific term for any unit or category within the taxonomic hierarchy, representing a specific rank.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

The framework of all taxonomic categories arranged in a sequence of steps from species up to kingdom.

Species

A group of individual organisms with fundamental similarities, representing the lowest category in the taxonomic hierarchy.

Genus

A category that comprises a group of related species which possess more characters in common with each other than with species of other genera.

Family

A taxonomic category containing a group of related genera, characterized by both vegetative and reproductive features of plant species.

Order

A higher taxonomic level that serves as an assemblage of families exhibiting a few similar characters.

Class

A taxonomic category that includes related orders, such as Mammalia which includes orders Primata and Carnivora.

Phylum

A high-level taxonomic category for animals determined by common features like the presence of a notochord and a dorsal hollow neural system.

Division

The taxonomic category in plant classification that corresponds to the level of Phylum in animal classification.

Kingdom

The highest category in the classification hierarchy, such as Kingdom Animalia or Kingdom Plantae.

Chordata

The phylum to which animals like fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals belong due to shared features like a notochord.

$$\text{Homo sapiens}$$

The scientific name for human beings, belonging to the genus $\text{Homo}$ and family $\text{Hominidae}$.

$$\text{Musca domestica}$$

The scientific biological name for the housefly, which belongs to the order $\text{Diptera}$.