Classification

Classification & Naming

Classwork

  1. What is the correct order of the current classification hierarchy, from most general to most specific?
  2. Are two organisms in domain more or less closely related than two organisms in the same class? Explain your answer.
  3. What is the benefit of using binomial nomenclature in science?
  4. Write the scientific name of humans using appropriate binomial nomenclature.

Homework

  1. If two organisms are in the same phylum, do they have to also be in the same kingdom? Explain your answer.
  2. Give the classification of humans from domain to species.
  3. A mountain lion, cougar and puma are all the same animal. Use this example to explain the importance of binomial nomenclature.
  4. Who is credited with developing the current system of binomial nomenclature?

Phylogeny & Domains

Classwork

  1. What information is used to organize species into a phylogenetic tree?
  2. Explain the goal for creating a phylogenetic tree.
  3. According to the cladogramto the right, what characteristic(s) are shared by all of the chosen organisms?
  4. According to the cladogram, does a crocodile share a more recent common ancestor with a blue jay or a bullfrog?
  5. According to the cladogram, what derived trait separates mammals from the rest of the organisms?
  6. Cladograms place a high level of importance on the development of derived traits. Explain why, in terms of classification, this could possible pose a problem.
  7. Explain the major cellular similarity that exists between domain Archaea and domain Eubacteria but differs between these two and Eukarya.
  8. What cellular organelle exists in members of all three domains? Explain, in your own terms, why this similarity exists.
  9. Even though many protists are unicellular, they are classified in the Eukarya domain. Justify the classification of protists.

Homework

  1. What is the significance of a derived trait in creating a phylogenetic tree or a cladogram?
  2. Would two organisms that are evolutionary closely related share more or fewer derived traits than two organisms that are very distantly evolutionarily related?
  3. According to the cladogram to the left, which organisms belong to the clade of carnivores? Explain your answer
  4. Explain how DNA can be used to refine cladistics.
  5. Suppose you are studying four organisms for purposes of classification. Through DNA analysis, you find that the number of base pair differences between organism A and the others are as follows: B-35, C-42, D-15. Which most likely shares the most recent common ancestry with organism A? Explain your answer.
  6. Suppose you discover a new organism in the Brazilian rainforest. This organism is multicellular and sedentary, lacking any mobility. Describe a simple experiment you could use to determine whether your organism should be classified as a plant or a fungus.
  7. Suppose you discover a new species of prokaryotic organism, but cannot determine in which domain it belongs. How could you potentially use habitat to help determine your classification?
  8. Many people describe protists as having characteristics of plants and animals. Explain why this statement is true.
  9. Under which kingdom would you find the vast majority of multicellular heterotrophs? Explain your answer.

Kingdom Plantae

Classwork

  1. Name 3 characteristics all organisms in the plant kingdom share.
  2. What traits are used to break the plant kingdom into phylum?
  3. Are liverworts more closely related to mosses or horsetails? Explain your reasoning?
  4. What is the purpose of the xylem?
  5. You have purchased a flowering plant. How could you determine if this plant is a monocot or a dicot?
  6. Roughly 70% of angiosperm species exhibit polyploidy. What does this mean?

Homework

  1. Are flowering plants more closely related to whisk ferns or conifers? What evidence supports your reasoning?
  2. Draw a phylogenetic tree for the four categories of plant phyla.
  3. What is the purpose of the phloem?
  4. You have a tree in your backyard. How could you determine if it is an angiosperm or a gymnosperm?
  5. Draw a phylogenetic tree for the following species: Rose, Common Daisy, Eastern Red Cedar, and Easter Lily (use the internet).

Kingdom Animalia

Classwork

  1. What was the ‘Cambrian Explosion?’
  2. Suppose you discover a new species of organism in the rainforest. This organism is a highly complex, predatory reptile. What type of symmetry would you suggest this organism demonstrates? Why?
  3. Could you correctly say that a jellyfish has a skeleton? Explain your answer.
  4. What is the difference between a coelom and a pseudocoelom?
  5. Explain, using DNA as evidence, how even though two organisms may look very similar in appearance, such as a salamander and a lizard, they may exist quite far apart on a phylogenetic tree.

Homework

  1. Explain why, if all animal phyla evolved from organisms that existed 600 million years ago during the pre-Cambrian period, that animals today bear little resemblance at all to animals that existed during that time.
  2. In surveying all of the species of organisms on planet Earth, are invertebrates or vertebrates more common?
  3. Would you predict that a highly developed mammal would be an acoelomate? Why or why not?
  4. According to the cladogramto the right, what derived trait is present in ray-finned fish but absent in sharks?
  5. According to the cladogram, amphibians share a common ancestry with primates prior to the development of which derived trait?
  6. Is a frog a mammal? Explain.

Free Response

  1. Below is a basic cladogram classifying vertebrates according to some of their shared unique characteristics. Used this illustration to respond to the prompts below.


  1. Complete the table below, based upon the cladogram above, by placing an X in the box if the organism demonstrates the trait.

Trait / Lungfishes / Amphibians / Mammals / Lizards & Snakes / Crocodiles / Ostriches / Hawks
Vertebral column
Tetrapod Limbs
Amnion
Feathers
Hair
  1. Which of the traits shown above are common to both hawks and mammals?
  2. Which of the traits shown above are common to both amphibians and crocodiles?
  1. There are concepts to consider when either constructing or analyzing phylogenetic trees. Explain the following in relation to phylogenetic trees, in general.
  2. Are phylogenetic trees static or are the updated and changed?
  3. Identify one type of information, considered new evidence, which is leading to changes in phylogenetic trees.
  4. Describe how this evidence is being used to develop phylogenetic information.

  1. Pumpkin is the common name for the species Cucurbitapepo. Use this information and the pictures above to answer the following questions.
  2. What genus does the pumpkin belong to?
  3. Identify the pumpkin as an angiosperm or a gymnosperm. Explain your reasoning.
  4. Carrots, a dicot, and orchids, a monocot, also belong to the plantae kingdom. To which is the pumpkin more closely related? What evidence can you use to support your conclusion?

  1. The above phylogenetic tree is referred to as an ultrametric tree because it shows when a species lived, in addition to how closely related it is to other species.
  1. What species are most closely related to the ancestor for all members of the Homo genus?
  2. Approximately how long ago did Austrolopithecusanamensis arise?
  3. Approximately how long did Homo erectus survive as a species?
  4. What type of body plan was most likely exhibited by Homo neanderthalensis?

BiologyClassification

Classification Answer Key

  1. Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
  2. Less closely related. A domain is a much broader level of classification than a class. In order to be in the same class, two organisms need to share many more characteristics than if they were to share the same domain.
  3. It reduces confusion that exists in common names and provides a consistent method of reference for biologists. It also makes the names more brief than historically.
  4. Homo sapiens
  5. Yes. Since phylum is more specific than kingdom, if two organisms are in the same phylum, they must be in the same kingdom
  6. Eukarya, Animalia, Chordata, Mammalia, Primates, Hominidae, Homo, Homo sapiens
  7. All of these common names are used for the same organism, which can obviously create confusion. Binomial nomenclature issues a standard scientific name for every species on the planet and avoids confusion when referring to species, particularly when different geographies use different names
  8. Linnaeus
  9. Similar characteristics, DNA, organismal structure
  10. Illustrate the evolutionary development of various organisms, and depict the lineage and relationships that exist among branches of life.
  11. Vertebrae
  12. Blue jay
  13. Hair
  14. If the derived trait is not determined carefully, if could be misleading when determining evolutionary relationships. This is particularly true if a trait is chosen that does not truly separate different groups of organisms from each other. The development of wings may be an example of this.
  15. They are both prokaryotic, whereas Eukarya are eukaryotic.
  16. Ribosomes. Cell membrane or cell wall may also be acceptable. All types of cells need these organelles. Ribosomes produce proteins, which are necessary for gene expression and proper function of all forms of life. Cell membranes enclose all forms of cells as well. While not all cells have a cell well, members of all three domains do exhibit a cell wall.
  17. Protists contain a nucleus.
  18. Derived traits are characteristics used to organize organisms and determine evolutionary relationships on a phylogenetic tree
  19. They would share more derived traits
  20. Wolf, leopard and domestic cat are all examples of carnivores and are in the carnivore clade
  21. DNA can be used to determine more specific evolutionary relationships that may not be possible using only derived traits. Therefore, it may help create a more accurate cladogram
  22. Organism D. The fewer the differences in DNA, the more recently the organisms diverged from a common ancestor, and the more closely related they are.
  23. Keep the organism in the absence of light. If it can survive in total darkness, it is a fungus, if it cannot, it may be a plant, but further tests would be required.
  24. Prokaryotic organisms are grouped into two domains- archaea and bacteria. Archaeans are typically found in more extreme environments than bacteria.
  25. Protists are all eukaryotic, like plants and animals, and they can be heterotrophic or autotrophic, like plants and animals
  26. Animal kingdom. Archaea and bacteria are prokaryotic. Protists are unicellular. Plants are autotrophic. Animal diversity is much greater than fungi.
  27. Ability to do photosynthesis, chloroplasts, autotrophic, nucleus and other organelles, cell wall, etc.
  28. Flowers vs. no flower, vascular vs. non-vascular, seeds vs. no seeds
  29. Mosses because they are both non-vascular plants.
  30. The xylem is used to transport water up from the roots of the plant.
  31. You can determine if it is a monocot or a dicot based on the number of flower petals (multiples of 3 vs. multiples of 4 or 5), the leaf veins (parallel vs. branched), the number of seed leaves (1 vs. 2), the vascular bundles (complex vs. ring) or the roots (fibrous vs. taproot).
  32. They have more than 2 copies of their chromosomes in every cell.
  33. Conifers, because they are both vascular and seeded.
  34. See image.
  35. To transport sugars produced in the leaves by photosynthesis to other parts of the plant.
  36. By observing if the tree flowers or not. Flowering trees are angiosperms.
  37. See image.
  38. A period of time during the early Paleozoic period when the diversity of multicellular organisms experienced a significant increase
  39. Most likely bilateral. All vertebrates demonstrate bilateral symmetry, which is typically seen among more highly advanced organisms.
  40. Yes. A jellyfish has a hydrostatic skeleton, in which it uses water to provide support for its body
  41. A coelom is completely lined with mesoderm, a pseudocoelom is not
  42. DNA trumps all other traits. Even though salamanders and lizards have very similar characteristics, they are each more closely related to other organisms, which can be determined through DNA analysis
  43. The environments that existed at that time were much different than current environments. Species develop characteristics and evolve adaptations based on the environment in which they exist.
  44. Invertebrates, by far
  45. No. Acoelomates have fluid filled body cavities and are typically more basic organisms
  46. Bony skeleton
  47. Amniotic egg
  48. No, it is not endothermic.
  1. Phylogeny

Trait / Lungfishes / Amphibians / Mammals / Lizards & Snakes / Crocodiles / Ostriches / Hawks
Vertebral column / x / X / X / X / X / X / X
Tetrapod Limbs / X / X / X / X / X / X
Amnion / X / X / X / X / X
Feathers / X / X
Hair / X
  1. See table
  2. Vertebral column, tetrapod limbs, amnion
  3. Vertebral column, tetrapod limbs
  1. Phylogenetic trees are updated and changed as new information is discovered.
  2. Molecular homologies, DNA comparisons
  3. Similarities in DNA sequence and other molecular homologies are used to determine relatedness of species which may have many derived characteristics due to adaptation to the environment.
  4. Plants
  5. Cucurbita
  6. It is an angiosperm because it has flowers.
  7. It is more closely related to the carrot because it is also a dicot. This is based on the flower, which as five petals. The leaf veins, seed leaves, and root system could also be studied to confirm this.
  8. Animals
  9. Homo ergaster and/or Homo habilis
  10. 4.2 to 4 million years ago
  11. 1.7 to 1.8 million years
  12. Bilateral coelomate

BiologyClassification