Species & taxonomy

• How do you know if an organism belongs to the same species ?

  If they interbreed to produce fertile offspring
• what is courtship 


  courtship

  • Courtship in animals is a behaviour that eventually results in mating and reproduction
• what do courtship behaviours enable individuals to do ?

  1. recognise members of their own species
  2. identify a mate that capable of interbreeding- both partners need to be sexually mature
  3. form a pair bond- leads to successful mating
  4. synchronise mating
• what is taxonomy ?

  The practice of biological classification
• what is the phylogenetic classification ?

  Phylogenetic classification enables us to arrange species into groups based on their evolutionary origins and relationships

  • Arranges the groups into a hierarchy, in which in which the groups are contained within larger composite groups and there is no overlap between groups and each group is called a taxon.
• what is a domain ? 


  A domain is the highest taxonomic rank and there are three types :

  • archea (prokaryotic)
  • bacteria (prokaryotic)
  • eukarya (eukaryotes)
• what is a hierarchal system ?

  larger groups contain smaller groups with no overlap between groups
• what are some ways to investigate the evolutionary relationships between species ?

  Using genome sequencing of:

  • DNA
  • mRNA
  • amino acids (of a proteins)

  the more similar the sequences, the more closely related the species are.
• why would you use amino acids instead of DNA and RNA to sequence the evolutionary relationship between organisms?

  it is easier to isolate proteins from cells.
• what is biodiversity ? 


  Biodiversity looks at the range and variety of genes, species and habitats within a particular region
• what is habitat diversity

  This is the range of different ecosystems or habitats within a particular area or region
• what is species diversity ?

  Species diversity looks at the number of different species in an area but also the evenness of abundance across the different species
• what is species richness ?

  Species richness is the number of species within a community (a A community is multiple populations of different species living and interacting in the same area)