ISS 220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Anthropocene, Speciation, Reproductive Isolation
19 Oct 2016
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Document Summary
Scientists have developed a system of classification for biological life on earth classifies evolutionary and genetic relationships. Chordata is one phyla that humans belong to. Vertebrata includes fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Taxonomy is the field that sets the rules of classification usually based on physical characteristics of organisms physical similarities must illustrate evolutionary descent to be useful. Homologies: characteristics that resulted from a common ancestor (inheritance) Analogies: characteristics that are based on common function, but do not imply common ancestry. Primitive traits: traits inherited from a distant common ancestor by a group of organisms but do not reflect the characteristics of groups that diverged after the characteristics appeared. Derived traits: traits that are modified from the ancestral condition and therefore illustrate particular evolutionary lineages. Phenetics: classification of organisms based on overall morphological similarities. Cladistics: classification of organisms according to the evolutionary lineages based only on derived homologies.
