Bio Ch 19

Question 1

Systematic biology (systematics)

Answer 1

study of the history of biodiversity; quantitative science that uses characteristics of living and fossil organisms (traits) to infer the relationships among organisms over time

Question 2

Traits

Answer 2

characteristics of living and fossil organisms

Question 3

Taxonomy

Answer 3

branch of systematic biology that identifies, names, and organizes biodiversity into related categories

Question 4

Taxon (pl. taxa)

Answer 4

general name for a group of organisms that exhibit a set of shared traits

Question 5

Classification

Answer 5

process of naming and assigning organisms or groups of organisms to a taxon

Question 6

Taxonomists

Answer 6

scientists that study taxonomy; strive to classify all living things on Earth

Question 7

Natural Groups

Answer 7

groupings of organisms that represent a shared evolutionary history; classified by using a set of traits to construct a phylogeny

Question 8

Phylogeny

Answer 8

evolutionary family tree; represents the evolutionary history of taxa; classifies taxa based on shared ancestry

Question 9

Binomial nomenclature

Answer 9

developed by Linnaeus; part of his classification system in which each species receives a unique 2-part Latin name

Question 10

Specific epithet

Answer 10

2nd word in binomial nomenclature; refers to a species within the genus (which is the 1st word)

Question 11

Species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, domain

Answer 11

major taxonomic groups

Question 12

Nomenclature

Answer 12

procedure of assigning scientific names to taxonomic groups

Question 13

5-Kingdom System

Answer 13

1969, RH Whittaker expanded the classification system to this, which includes Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, & Animalia; organisms were placed in these kingdoms based on type of cell (prokaryotic vs. eukaryotic), complexity (unicellular or multicellular), and type of nutrition

Question 14

Domain Bacteria, Domain Archaea, & Domain Eukarya

Answer 14

1970 - Carl Woese proposed 2 groups of prokaryotes and that they should be assigned to a classification higher than kingdom

Question 15

Common Ancestor

Answer 15

an ancestor to 2 or more lines of descent

Question 16

Lineage

Answer 16

each branch in a phylogeny; represents a descendant of a common ancestor

Question 17

Diverge

Answer 17

when a new character evolves, a new evolutionary path can begin from the old; a new lineage is formed, and a new branch of the phylogeny arises

Question 18

Ancestral Traits

Answer 18

those traits found in the common ancestor; not useful for determining the evolutionary relationships of an ancestor’s descendants

Question 19

Derived Traits

Answer 19

those traits not found in the common ancestor of a taxonomic group; most important traits for clarifying evolutionary relationships

Question 20

Cladistics

Answer 20

method that uses shared, derived traits to develop a hypothesis of evolutionary history

Question 21

Cladogram

Answer 21

the evolutionary history of derived traits is interpreted into a type of phylogeny constructed with cladistic methods

Question 22

Clade

Answer 22

a common ancestor and all of its descendant lineages

Question 23

Parsimony

Answer 23

cladistics applies this principle to a set of traits to construct a cladogram; considers the simplest solution to be the “optimal” solution

Question 24

Outgroup

Answer 24

taxon used to determine the ancestral and derived states of characters in the ingroup

Question 25

Ingroup

Answer 25

taxa for which the evolutionary relationships are being determined

Question 26

Chordates

Answer 26

all of these have a dorsal or spinal nerve chord

Question 27

Homology

Answer 27

structural similarity that stems from having a common ancestor

Question 28

Homologous Structures

Answer 28

structures similar to each other because of common descent

Question 29

Convergent Evolution

Answer 29

has occurred when distantly related species have a structure that looks the same only because of adaptation to the same type of environment

Question 30

Analogy

Answer 30

similarity due to convergence; example: wings of an insect and the wings of a bat

Question 31

Analogous Structures

Answer 31

structures that have the same function in different groups but do not have a common ancestry

Question 32

Molecular clock

Answer 32

neutral mutations can be used as this to construct a timeline of evolutionary history