5 AND 6 LAB

• Biodiversity is the collection of the variety of life on earth
• Systematists goal is to document and describe this biodiversity where true number of species is reduced to only estimates
• Accuracy of estimating diversity depends on biology of organisms, experience of researchers, analytical methods, and species concepts used
• Species


  The fundamental unit of biological classification, biodiversity and evolution
• Ways the word "species" is applied

  • Organisms in nature, are organized into taxa in which a binomial is applied to
  • Using species concepts that are associated with the properties assuming all species possess
  • The existence of rules that govern the formation of species names and specify where in a hierarchy of classification, species taxa belong to
• Species


  A difficult concept and remains a hypothesis
• Commonly used species concepts

  • Biological species concept
  • Morphological species concept
  • Ecological species concept
  • Phylogenetic species concept
• Biological species concept


  Populations capable of reproducing in nature, where organisms can interbreed and produce fertile offspring
• Morphological species concept


  Members similar in structure and form and a community whose morphological characters are sufficiently unique, to separate them from others
• Ecological species concept


  Members of related populations that compete more with each other than with other species. Differences between members in form and behavior are related to differences in the ecological resources the species exploit
• Phylogenetic species concept


  A species is a set of organisms sharing a common ancestor of monophyletic origin and similar evolutionary history. Members possess traits that combine them together (synapomorphy) and separate them from other species (autapomorphy)
• The study of Alejandro et al., (2005) is titled "Polyphyly of Mussaenda Inferred from ITS and trnT-F Data and Its Implication for Generic Limits in Mussaendeae (Rubiaceae)"