Download taxonomy: science of classified and naming

Chapter Seventeen Vocabulary
17.1
taxonomy: science of classified and naming organisms.
taxon: (plural: taxa) level within the Linnaean system of classification (kingdom, phylum, class, order,
family, genus, or species) that is organized into a nested hierarchy.
binomial nomenclature: naming system in which each species is given a two-part scientific name (genus
and species) using Latin words.
17.2
phylogeny: evolutionary history of a group of related species.
cladistics: method of organizing species by evolutionary relationships in which species are grouped
according to the order that they diverged from their ancestral line.
cladogram: diagram that displays proposed evolutionary relationships among a group of species.
derived character: trait that differs in structure or function from that found in the ancestral line for a
group of species; used in constructing cladograms.
17.3
molecular clock: theoretical clock that uses the rate of mutation to measure evolutionary time.
mitochondrial DNA: DNA found only in the mitochondria, often used as a molecular clock.
ribosomal RNA (rRNA): RNA that is in the ribosome and guides the translation of mRNA into a
protein; also used as a molecular clock.
17.4
Bacteria: one of the three domains of life, containing single-celled prokaryotes in the kingdom Bacteria.
Archaea: one of the three domains of life, containing single-celled prokaryotes in the kingdom Archaea.
Eukarya: one of the three domains of life, contains all eukaryotes in the kingdoms Protista, Plantae,
Fungi, and Animalia.