Classification

• Biodiversity is a measure of the variety of living organisms and their genetic differences
• Evolution is the process by which natural selection acts on variation to bring about adaptations and eventually speciation
• Taxonomy is the science of describing, classifying and naming living organisms
• Morphology is the study of the form and structure of organisms
• Analogous features are features that look similar or have a similar function, but are not from the same biological origin
• Homologous structures are structures that genuinely show common ancestry
• Domains are the three largest classification categories: Eukaryota, Bacteria, and Archaea
• The Archaea domain is made up of bacteria-like prokaryotic organisms found in many places including extreme conditions and the soil
• Archaea are thought to be early relatives of the eukaryotes
• A kingdom is a classification category smaller than domains
• A phylum (division for plants) is a group of classes that all share common characteristics
• A class is a group of orders that all share common characteristics
• An order is a group of families that all share common characteristics
• A family is a group of genera that all share common characteristics
• A genus is a group of species that all share common characteristics
• A species is a group of closely related organisms that are all potentially capable of interbreeding to produce fertile offspring
• Archaebacteria are ancient bacteria thought to be the oldest form of living organism
• Morphological species model:

  • Species definition based solely on the appearance of the observed organisms
• Sexual dimorphism:

  • Great difference in appearance between male and female of a species
• Molecular phylogeny:

  • Analysis of genetic material of organisms to establish evolutionary relationships
• Ecological species model:

  • Species definition based on the ecological niche occupied by an organism
• Mate-recognition species model:

  • Species definition based on unique fertilisation systems, including mating behaviour
• Genetic species model:

  • Species model based on DNA evidence
• Evolutionary species model:

  • Species model based on shared evolution between groups of organisms
• DNA sequencing is the process of determining the base sequences of all or part of an organism's genome
• DNA profiling involves analyzing the non-coding areas of DNA to identify patterns
• Bioinformatics focuses on developing software and computing tools to organize and analyze raw biological data
• This includes creating algorithms, mathematical models, and statistical tests to make sense of large amounts of data being generated