Systematic: Seeking order amidst diversity
Species are organized because there are so many…
Life is everywhere on this planet and nowhere else
All life is related to other lives on this planet.. because they all share DNA sequences.. we all share a common ancestor
Earth is about 4.5 billions years old.. no life found dating back that far
100 million species today humans have been on earth for 200 million years
Taxonomy is the branch of biology concerned with naming and classifying the diverse forms of life on our planet.
Homo sapiens = Latin for human.. should me underlined when written and italicized when typed
Apes share up to 99% of DNA with us
Homo sapiens literally means “thinking man”
Sciaenops ocellatus = red fish
Agra sasquatch (it has big feet) = beetle
Agra phobia and Agra vation have the same genus so they are closely related to one another
There is a genus of fossil snake named Montypythonvides
Currently we know about 10% of the species that exist
TAXONOMY
The branch of biology concerned with naming and classifying the diverse forms of life on our planet.
There are many ways that things may be grouped:
Example: plants verses animals:
One of the early classifications placed the animals in one group (Zoology).
The bacteria, fungi and many protsists were considered plants (Botany) while some of the protists were grouped with the animals
Now there are 3 domains
The 3 domains and the kingdoms within them each have observably different attributes that define them
Bacteria
Archaea
Eukarya
Animals (contains all homosapians), fungi, plants, protists (single celled eukaryotes)
All humans are related to all living things on the planet
SEE TABLE POSTED IN MOODLE*
TAXONOMIC CATEGORIES
The organization of taxonomic grouping arranges organisms in sets.
Domain is the largest and most inclusive
Each set is then grouped with other sets into a larger set.
The major taxonomic categories from most inclusive (biggest sat) to least inclusive (smaller set) are:
Domain, Kingdom, Phylum (Division), Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
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TABLE 18-1 classification of selected organisms, reflecting their degree of relatedness
Ex: what do humans and sunflowers have in common?
In same domain
Both eukaryotes
Both multicellular
Ex: what do chimps and humans have in common?
Same order, class, phylum, kingdom and domain
So, chimps and humans are more closely related than humans and sunflowers
Genus:
The category genus groups together closely related organisms which may or may not interbreed
This separation based on interbreeding defines the category species
What is a species?
Species:
Species is the biological group which includes all the organisms which are (or have the potential for) interbreeding= biological species concept
Many species were originally distinguished by morphology: if two organisms look alike, they must be the same species
However, biological species are based on the ability to reproduce IN NATURE. (example of not in nature would be lions and tigers at the zoo.. stuff happens)
Ex: lions and tigers are the same species.. FALSE
Individuals may look similar but do not reproduce and therefore are not the same species like.. eastern, western, mountain blue birds
Individuals may look different but can reproduce and therefore are the same species like.. dogs ex: Maci= mixed phenotypes in one offspring. = selective breeding
Asexual organisms = reproduce 99.9% of the time more than sexual organisms
Historically, taxonomy is an inexact process
Organisms which were once placed together in a certain classification group have been separated when new or better evidence is uncovered
DNA sequencing of genomes for example
Relatedness can be determined by comparing DNA sequences
In other cases two organisms, which were thought to be separate species, were later found to in face be a single species
Golden mole was classified with
