SLE132- Midterm Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 42 pages long!)
11 Oct 2017
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Lecture 1: introduction to the unit and to the study of animals. Biologists have identified >1. 3 million living species of animals. Binomial nomenclature: two part scientific name in italics. Animals are grouped into 8 hierarchical groups which was first devised by linnaeus. Domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. Classification can also be used to illustrate evolutionary history or phylogeny. Animals may be reclassified or inserted into different categories (sub or super categories) Aims to create a tree that depicts the evolutionary events and hence evolutionary relationships. Monophyletic groups: contains recent common ancestor and all of its descendants. Branch points represent divergence from a common ancestor (monophyletic group). A branch point can also form a polytomy (an unresolved pattern of divergence. ) Sister taxa: two decendants that split from the same node are called sister taxa. Polytomy: an international node of a cladogram that has more than 2 immediate descendents (sister taxa)
