Download Review sheet – Chapter 4b

Review sheet – Chapter 4b (Diversity of Life)
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Understand that the unifying concept that allows us to classify organisms is evolution
Know that evolution is genetic change over time
Know that organisms are a good fit to their environment, but not perfect
Understand that the best-adapted individuals in a given environment will survive better (to
reproduce and pass their genes along to their offspring) than those not so well-adapted
Understand that natural selection is the process by which favorable, inherited traits become
more numerous in successive generations of a population (reproducing organisms)
Understand that in order for natural selection to occur, there must be a struggle for
existence/competition, variation, and an inheritance of traits
Know that the biological species concept defines a species as a member of a population which
has the potential to interbreed with other members of the population in nature to produce
viable, fertile offspring
Understand that according to the biological species concept, a species is determined by its
ability to interbreed and NOT on physical similarities
Know that all breeds of dogs (and races of humans for that matter) all belong to the same
species because they can interbreed
Know the names and order of taxa in the classification system of organisms: Domain, Kingdom,
Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
Understand that organisms are generally identified by a binomial system which consists of their
genus and species (=scientific name)
Know that the scientific name is written in italics and genus appears before species and is
capitalized (species is not)
Understand that no two species have the same scientific name
Know that scientific names are descriptive, while common names can be confusing and
deceiving
Understand that phylogenetics reconstructs evolutionary relationships by grouping organisms
by their relatedness to one another
Understand that a phylogeny is an evolutionary tree and illustrates the evolutionary
relationships between related species (or other taxa)
Understand that evidence for the phylogeny of an organism comes from body structure
(homologous structures), reproduction, embryological and larval development, and molecular
characteristics (DNA, RNA)
Know the 3 domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya
Understand that phylogenies are subject to conflict among evolutionary biologists and can
change over time
Know that you belong to Kingdom Animalia in Domain Eukarya