Prentice Hall Biology Chapter 18

Taxonomy

discipline classifying organisms and assigning each organism a universally accepted name.

Binomial nomendature

classification system in which each species is assigned a two-part scientific name.

Genus

group of level of organization into which organisms are classified.

Taxon

group or level of organization into which organisms are classsified.

Family

group of general that share many characteristic.

Order

group of similar familes.

Class

group of similar orders.

Phylum

group of closely related classes.

Kingdom

large taxonomic group, consisting of closely related phyla.

Phylogency

the study of evolutionary relationships among organisms.

Evolutionary classification

method of grouping organisms together according to their evolutionary history.

Derived character

Characteristic that appears in recent parts of a lineage, but not in its older members.

Cladogram

diagram that shows the evolutionary relationships among a group of organisms.

Molecular clock

model that uses DNA comparisons to estimate the length of time that 2 species have been evolving independently

Domain

most inclusive taxonomic category; larger than a kingdom.

Bacteria

domain of unicellular prokaryotes that have cell walls containing peptidoglycan.

Eubacteria

kingdom of unicellular prokaryotes whose cell walls are made up of peptidolycan.

Arehaea

domain of unicellular prokaryotes that have cell walls that do not contain peptidoglycan.

Archaebacteria

kingdom of unicelllular prokaryotes whose cell walls do not contain peptidoglycan.

Eukarya

domain of all organisms whose cells have nuclei, including protists, plants, fungi, and animals.

Protista

kingdom composed of eukaryotes that are not classified as plants, animals, or fungi.

Fungi

kingdom composed of heterotrophs; many obtain energy and nutrients from dead organic matter.

Plantae

kingdom of multicelllular photosynthetic autotrophs that have celll walls containing cellulose.

Animalia

kingdom of mullticellular ekaryotic heterotrophs whose cells do not have cell walls.