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Flashcards in Lecture 1 Deck (15)
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1
Q

What is systematics?

A

The scientific study of the sheer variety and diversification of extant and extinct organisms, their relationships and their evolutionary history

2
Q

Species are directly or indirectly related through what?

A

Common ancestry

3
Q

Phylogenetic relatedness is established via what?

A

Shared characters

4
Q

Phylogeny is reconstructed using modifications of characters that are what?

A

Inheritable and Inherited

5
Q

Organisms may share identical states as a result of what?

A

Decent from a common ancestor

Whereby a change occurs once and is maintained in descendant lineages

6
Q

State changes identify groups of organisms and illustrate what?

A

The hierarchical patterns that exist in nature

7
Q

How do you define a group of organisms?

A

Through their common ancestry

8
Q

What is the definition of a group of organisms?

A

A statement about its taxonomic memberships

I.e. Usually which species descending from a single common ancestor belong to that group

9
Q

How do you diagnose a group of organisms?

A

Through their shared characters

10
Q

The diagnosis of a group is a statement about what?

A

A statement about the characters that members of that group have inherited through the process of descent with modification.

11
Q

What are the two groups of organisms that may belong to the vertebrates?

A

Hagfish

Lampreys

12
Q

What are the deuterostome characteristics of vertebrates?

A

1) Indeterminate cell fate at 8-cell stage
2) Radial cleavage
3) Enterocoely
4) Deuterostomy

13
Q

What are the Three major groups of extant deuteroatomes?

A

Echinoderms

Hemichordates

Chordates (including craniates + vertebrates)

14
Q

What are the diagnostic features of Chordate Deuterosomes?

A
Notochord -
Hollow dorsal nerve chord 
Spinal ganglia 
Metameric muscle blocks -
Post-anal tail-
Pharyngeal slits -
Endostyle -
15
Q

Craniates are sometimes simply referred to as what?

A

Chordates with a head!

(I.e. Hagfish, lampreys and jawed vertebrates)

The presence of a head is unique to them