Topic 5 Species Classification Handout

Topic 5 – Species Classification

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of this week, students will be able to:

  1. Define the three domains of life

     • Understand the broad categories of life: Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarya.

  2. Define systematics and taxonomy

     • Systematics: Study of the diversity of organisms and their evolutionary relationships.

     • Taxonomy: The science of naming, describing, and classifying organisms.

  3. Outline the 8 hierarchy of groupings in taxonomy

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

  4. Explain how species are named using binomial nomenclature

     • A two-part scientific naming system created by Carl Linnaeus, includes genus and species.

  5. Explain the three types of phylogeny and their basis for the construction of phylogenetic trees

     • Types: Cladistic, Phenetic, and Evolutionary phylogenies.

     • Phylogenetic trees visualize evolutionary relationships.

  6. Explain the process of cladogenesis and anagenesis

     • Cladogenesis: Branching evolution where a new species arises from a parent species.

     • Anagenesis: Gradual evolution of a species without branching.

  7. Describe how morphological and genetic homologies are used to construct phylogenetic trees

     • Homologies: Similar traits due to shared ancestry, used for determining evolutionary relationships.

  8. Distinguish between ancestral (primitive) and shared derived characters to identify evolutionary relationships on a phylogenetic tree

     • Ancestral Characters: Traits present in a common ancestor.

     • Shared Derived Characters: Traits that are specific to a group and not present in distant ancestors.

  9. Explain the use of cladistics and principle of parsimony to construct phylogenetic trees

     • Cladistics uses shared derived traits to group organisms.

     • Principle of Parsimony: The simplest explanation (fewest evolutionary changes) is preferred.