4.3 classfication and evolution

What is the biggest taxonomic group?

Domain

What are the seven taxonomic groups in order?

Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

What is the definition of a species?

A group of similar organisms able to reproduce to produce fertile offspring

What is the binomial system?

System of naming species with two parts: Genus (capital letter) and species (lowercase)

How should scientific names be written?

In italics or underlined

What are the three domains?

Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya

What are the five kingdoms?

Prokaryotae, Protoctista, Fungi, Plantae, Animalia

What are the features of Prokaryotae?

Unicellular, no nucleus, no membrane-bound organelles, nutrients absorbed or made by photosynthesis

What are the features of Protoctista?

Mostly unicellular, nucleus, some have chloroplasts, nutrients by photosynthesis or heterotrophy

What are the features of Fungi?

Unicellular or multicellular, chitin cell walls, no chloroplasts, nutrients by saprophytic or parasitic feeding

What are the features of Plantae?

Multicellular, cellulose cell walls, chloroplasts, autotrophic, store starch

What are the features of Animalia?

Multicellular, no cell wall, heterotrophic, move with cilia/flagella/contractile proteins

What is phylogeny?

The study of evolutionary relationships between organisms

How is phylogeny shown?

As a phylogenetic tree

What evidence is used for phylogeny?

Fossil record, comparative anatomy, comparative biochemistry (e.g. cytochrome c, rRNA)

What is Darwin’s theory of evolution?

Natural selection

What is a selective pressure?

A factor that affects an organism’s chances of survival

What are modern examples of evolution?

Antibiotic resistance, peppered moths

What is interspecific variation?

Differences between species

What is intraspecific variation?

Differences between organisms within the same species

What causes genetic variation?

Alleles, mutations, meiosis, sexual reproduction, chance

What causes environmental variation?

Conditions in which an organism lives

What is discontinuous variation?

Characteristics with distinct categories (e.g. blood group)

How is discontinuous variation represented?

Bar chart or pie chart

What is continuous variation?

Characteristics with a full range of values (e.g. height)

How is continuous variation represented?

Histogram with normal distribution curve

What are the three types of adaptations?

Anatomical, behavioural, physiological

What is a homologous structure?

A structure with the same origin but different function (evidence for divergent evolution)

What is an analogous structure?

A structure with different origin but same function (evidence for convergent evolution)

What is divergent evolution?

Species evolve from a common ancestor, adapting to different environments

What is convergent evolution?

Unrelated species evolve similar traits due to similar environments