ANT100Y1 : ch 2_

• School: UTSG
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANT100Y1
• Professor: Christopher Watts

Document Summary

Modern evolutionary biology is based on genetics. There are 2 types of cells in any living organism: prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. The main difference is that prokaryotic cells, such as bacteria, lack a cell nucleus and are unicellular, while eukaryotic cells have a nucleus and can be unicellular or multicellular. Eukaryotic cells can form complex systems in multicellular organisms, such as humans. Within the nucleus of these cells are chromosomes. Chromosomes are dna molecules that contain hereditary information. Each eukaryotic cell can duplicate itself and its chromosomes in a complex process known as mitosis, where cells are divided into two identical daughter cells with the same number of chromosomes as the parent cell. Meiosis provides the hereditary material passed between generations in sexually reproducing species, like humans. Humans typically have 23 pairs of chromosomes (46 chromosomes) in a diploid cell. A diploid cell is a cell containing two sets of chromosomes, or one set inherited from each parent.