BISC 316 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Ostracoderm, Polyphyly, Stout
11 Dec 2016
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Taxonomy: the naming and classification of species. Phylogeny: the evolutionary history of a species or group of related species. Systematics: the study of biological diversity in an evolutionary context. Museums (shoot em, stuff em, show em) Understanding biology of vertebrates requires an appreciation of the diversity of the organism that make up this group. Systematics / taxonomy: concerned with the diversity of organisms. Originally are grouped into taxa: originally based upon similarities, now based on evolutionary relationships. Genus species: basic unit; a group of naturally interbreeding populations that are genetically isolated from other groups. The closer together are more closely related. Two significant structural features: location of branch point. Relative time of origin of different taxa: extent of divergence between two taxa. There are two different approaches to classification: phenetics, cladistics, phenetics or numerical taxonomy. Uses many anatomical characteristics: reduced bias, homology vs. analogy. Critics say morphological similarities does not mean there are genetic similarities: phylogenetic systematics or cladistics.
