BIOL108 Lecture 2: Topic 2.docx

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Biology (Biological Sciences)
• Course: BIOL108
• Professor: Richard Moses

Document Summary

Topic 2 taxonomy, phylogeny and systematics: taxonomy naming and classifying organisms, taxonomy has 2 major goals, 1. Classify species using hierarchical categories: current naming system used in biology: binomial system of nomenclature, developed by cal von linn . Named 11,000 species of plants and animals: 1. Each species has a unique two part name: e. g. Homo sapiens (all italicised or underlined first letter of first word capitalized, first letter of second word lower case: homo. Specific epithet: together the combination of the two uniquely defines the species. Binomials ( scientific names ) avoid confusion of common names: e. g. Bluebells can be the campanula rotundifolia: but none of these are closely related. Linnaean classification grouped species into hierarchical categories: based on morphological similarity, figure 1. 14. A crocodile and birds share a more recent common animal than crocodiles and other reptiles. Best guess of organisms relatedness based on info available: branch points (nodes) define ancestral species.