Study Guide Chapter 19

1. Systematic Biology - understanding the evolutionary history of

life on Earth.
2. Systematic biology uses traits to infer the evolutionary relationships
among organisms.
A. The Field of Taxonomy
1. Taxonomy is the branch of biology concerned with identifying,
naming, and classifying organisms.
2. A taxon is a group containing an organism or group of organisms that
exhibit a set of shared traits.
3. Classification is the process of naming and assigning organisms or
groups of organisms to a taxon
4. Early taxonomists relied on physical characteristics to classify
organisms.
5. Today taxonomists classify organisms based on their evolutionary
history.
B. Linnean Taxonomy
1. Carolus Linnaeus (17071778) developed the binomial system to
name species.
2. The binomial system of nomenclature names organisms using a twopart name.
a. First part is the genus
b. Second part is the specific epithet
c. A scientific name consists of both genus and specific epithet (e.g.,
Homo sapiens)
3. Linnaeus grouped plants by flower parts; his categories were published
in Systema Naturae in 1735
4. Todays classification categories: species, genus, family, order,
class, phylum, and kingdom.
a. A higher category, the domain, has recently been added
The Three-Domain System
A. Defining the Domains
1. In the 1970s Carl Woese and colleagues discovered that there were two
groups of prokaryotic organisms and their rRNA sequence was so
different from each other that these prokaryotic organisms should be
classified in separate domains.
a. Prokaryotic organisms are placed in the domains Bacteria and
Archaea.
b. Eukaryotic organisms are placed in the domain Eukarya
B. Domain Bacteria

a. The bacteria are prokaryotic unicellular organisms that reproduce

asexually.
b. Cyanobacteria are large photosynthetic prokaryotes.
c. Some bacteria are parasitic and cause disease.
C. Domain Archaea
a. Like bacteria, archaea are prokaryotic unicellular organisms that
reproduce asexually.
b. The archaea live in extreme environments: methanogens in swamps,
halophiles in salt lakes, and thermoacidophiles in hot acidic
environments.
c. The archaea cell wall is diverse but not the same as the bacterial
cell wall.
D. Domain Eukarya
a. Eukaryotes always have membrane-bound organelles.
b. Sexual reproduction is common; various types of life cycles are
seen.
c. Protists and fungi are eukaryotes, as are plants and animals
19.3 Phylogeny
Phylogeny is the evolutionary history of a group of organisms.
A. Interpreting a Phylogeny
1. A phylogenetic tree indicates common ancestors and lines of descent
or lineages.
2. When a new character evolves, a new evolutionary path diverges
from the old, and a new lineage is formed.
3. Different lineages diverging from a common ancestor have ancestral
characteristicstraits shared by the ancestor and the species in its
lines of descent.
4. A derived character is present only in a specific line of descent.
B. Cladistics
1. Cladistics analyze primitive and derived characters and constructs
cladograms on the basis of shared derived characters.
2. A cladogram is shows relationships among species based on shared,
derived characters
3. Any character found in the outgroup as well as the ingroup is a
shared primitive character.
4. A clade is an evolutionary branch that includes a common ancestor
and all its descendent species.
C. Tracing Phylogeny
1. Fossil Traits

a. Because fossils can be dated, fossils can establish the age of a

species.
b. The fossil record is often incomplete because soft-bodied organisms
do not fossilize well.
2. Morphological Traits
a. Homology is character similarity that stems from having a common
ancestor; homology helps indicate when species belong to a related
group.
b. Homologous structures are related to each other through
common descent but may differ in structure and function (e.g., the
forelimbs of a horse and the wings of a bat).
c. Convergent evolution is acquisition of similar traits in distantly
related lines of descent as a result of adaptation to similar
environmental conditions; convergent evolution may make it difficult
to distinguish homologous from analogous structures.
d. Analogous structures have the same function but are not derived
from the same organ in a common ancestor (e.g., the wings of an
insect and the wings of a bat).
3. Behavioral Traits
1. Since many different species may display some common behaviors,
this may substantiate the morphological data that some species are
related through evolution.
4. Molecular Traits
1. Mutations bring about changes in base pair sequences of DNA.
2. Each lineage accumulates changes in DNA base pair sequences and
amino acid sequences in proteins over time.
3. Amino acid sequences are now used to determine the differences in
proteins between two species.
1) Cytochrome c is a protein found in all aerobic organisms; the
amino acid differences in cytochrome c between chickens and
humans are 13 but between chickens and ducks is only 3.
5. Molecular Clocks
a. Nucleic acid changes are not tied to adaptation; the fairly
constant changes provide a molecular clock.
D. DNA Bar Coding of Life
1. The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) - to identify a species
using a handheld scanner.
2. Database of DNA sequences - this scanner would tap into the
database and identify an organism.
Review

1. Explain the binomial system of nomenclature. Who developed this

system?
2. Differentiate between taxonomy and classification.
3. List the classification system used today in an ascending order.
4. Differentiate between: ancient and derived characteristics.
5. Differentiate between: analogous and homologous structures.
6. What is a cladogram?
7. What do you understand by DNA bar coding of life?
8. What are the kingdoms that we use today?
9. Give an example of convergent evolution?
10.
What is a node?

Online Quiz
1. The branch of biology that is concerned with identifying, naming and
classifying organisms is called taxonomy.
2. The binomial system of naming species was developed by Linnaeus.
Feedback: Yes; he is credited with the two-name naming system, binomial
nomenclature.
3. The evolutionary history of a group of organisms is a phylogeny.
4. To identify species by comparing a short fragment of DNA sequence
from an unknown organism to a large database of sequences from
known organisms is specifically known as DNA barcoding.
Feedback: Systematics is the study and reconstruction of evolutionary
relationships.
5. All of the following statements about cladistics are true EXCEPT:
a. Cladistics uses shared, derived traits to develop cladograms.
b. In cladistics, hypotheses are developed about the evolutionary
history of organisms.
c. A cladogram is a definitive, unchanging representation of the
evolutionary history of organisms.

d. Cladistics applies the principle of parsimony.

6. Which of the following is a kingdom of multicellular, photosynthetic
organisms in the Domain Eukarya? Plantae
Feedback: Fungi are heterotrophic, not photosynthetic.
7. The sequencing of rRNA suggests that all organisms evolved from a
common ancestor along three distinct lineages.
Feedback: Not all organisms have mitochondrial DNA.
8. Traditionally, Domain Eukarya contains four kingdoms.
Feedback: The four kingdoms are Animalia, Fungi, Protista and Plantae
9. All organisms in Domain Eukarya have cells with a nucleus
10.
Organisms in Domain Eukarya that form spores and have cell
walls containing chitin are classified as fungi
11.
Convergent evolution has occurred when distantly related
species have a structure that looks the same only because of
adaptation to the same type of environment.
Feedback: Convergent evolution has occurred when distantly-related
species have a structure that looks the same only because of
adaptation to the same type of environment.
12.
When systematic biologists study mutations in base-pair
sequences that accumulate occur over time, they are studying
morphological traits
Feedback: Yes; systematic biologists are studying molecular traits
when they study mutations in base-pair sequences that accumulate
occur over time
13.
Those traits not found in the common ancestor of a taxonomic
group are derived traits
14.

Which of the following taxa does not contain prokaryotes? Fungi

15.

Which of the following is true of a cladogram?

It shows the sequence in which characters evolved in the group being

studied.
16.
When determining the phylogeny of closely-related species,
investigators study mitochondrial DNA because it changes so quickly
17.
The relatedness of groups of organisms is more accurately
determined when molecular data is examined.
Feedback: This type of data is straightforward and is not impacted by
slight anatomical variations; it views direct relationships based on
genetic comparisons.
18.
Which of the following statements about molecular clocks is not
true?
Molecular clocks indicate relatedness of organisms.
Molecular clocks are based on changes in nucleic acids that are tied to
adaptation.
Molecular clocks indicate evolutionary time.
Molecular clocks are based on nucleic acid changes that occur at a
constant rate.
19.

The most inclusive category of classification is domain

20.
The taxa that will be placed in clades in a cladogram form the
ingroup