Classification and phylogenyAQA A-Level Biology: Flashcards
What these 13 flashcards ask
- What is a phylogenetic classification?
- What is a taxon?
- What does 'no overlap' mean in the hierarchy?
- List the taxa from largest to smallest.
- What is a binomial?
- How is a binomial written?
- Why are binomials useful?
- Two species share the same genus. What does that tell you?
- How does genome sequencing show relationships?
- Why do DNA sequences differ more in distantly related species?
- How can immunology show relationships?
- Why can similar proteins show relatedness?
- Why can molecular evidence be better than appearance?
Exam questions on Classification and phylogeny
- A zoologist is classifying big cats. She records the lion as Panthera leo, the tiger as Panthera tigris and the domestic cat as Felis catus. Each of these three species has been placed in a hierarchy of taxa.Suggest what the classification tells you about the evolutionary relationships between the lion, the tiger and the domestic cat.2 marks
- A zoologist is cataloguing mammals from several countries. The common names of the same animal differ between languages. For example, the grey wolf is called 'wolf' in English, 'Wolf' in German and 'loup' in French, but all scientists refer to it as Canis lupus.State the genus and the species of the grey wolf, and explain why a species cannot be placed in two different genera in the hierarchy.2 marks
- Three species of beetle, P, Q and R, are placed in a phylogenetic classification. P and Q are in the same family but in different genera. R is in the same order as P and Q, but in a different family. A fourth species, S, is placed in the same genus as P.Of the three species P, Q and R only, use the information to deduce which two are the most closely related and which is the least closely related to the other two, and explain your answer.3 marks
Written by the Exaim team, led by Shaun Daswani (Head of Upper Secondary, Improve ME Institute; MSc Financial Mathematics, Imperial College London; BSc, UCL) and Jason Daswani (operational lead, Improve ME Institute; LSE).