Topic 3

Question 1

What is taxonomy?

Answer 1

the scientific discipline concerned with naming and classifying organisms.

Question 2

What is nomenclature?

Answer 2

a system of rules for naming things.

Question 3

What are three problems with using a species’ common name?

Answer 3

1. Different names for the same species (among countries, languages, etc.
2. Same name for different species
3. The common name may imply relationships that doe not exist.
   (jellyfish = not a fish. but seahorse = fish, not a horse!)

Question 4

What is the Linnaean system of Nomenclature?

Answer 4

• Carl Linnaeus
• Hierarchical classification of species into groups based on the similarity of structures, functions, and other features.

Binomal nomenclature!

Question 5

What are the two parts to every scientific name?

Answer 5

• the genus, followed by the specific epithet
• specific epithets are unique for each species within a genus but are often reused between genera.

Question 6

What are the major taxonomic ranks?

Answer 6

domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.

Question 7

What is a taxon?

Answer 7

• a taxonomic rank at any level of a hierarchical classification (plural = taxa)
• ex: order Rodentia (rodents) is a taxon.

Question 8

What are limitations to hierarchical classification?

Answer 8

• higher-level taxa are not comparable between lineages.
• hierarchical classification provides no further information about the evolutionary relationships between taxa.

Question 9

What are the three groups of the broadest level of classification using DNA sequence comparisons?

Answer 9

• Domain Bacteria (prokaryotes)
• Domain Archaea (eukaryotes)
• Domain Eukarya (eukaryotes)

(eukaryotes = unicellular, prokaryotes = multi-cellular).