Pre-Lab Questions

1. Use the following classifications to determine which organism is least related out of the
three. Explain your rationale.

Table 2: Classifications

Classification Level American Green Tree European Fire- Bellied Toad Eastern Newt
Frog

Domain Eukarya Eukarya Eukarya

Kingdom Animalia Animalia Animalia
Phylum Chordata Chordata Chordata
Class Amphibia Amphibia Amphibia

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Order Anura Anura Caudata

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Family Hylidae Bombinatoridae Salamandridae

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Genus Tursipops Bombina Notophthalmus

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Species cinerea bombina viridescens
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The Eastern Newt is the least related as it separates from the other two organisms earlier.
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When it comes to Order, the Tree Frog and Bellied Toad both fall under the Anura
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category. The Newt falls under the Caudata category, thus differing more from the other
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two organisms. The Toad and Tree Frog fall only begin to fall under different categories
at the next stage, which is the Family classification.
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1. How has DNA sequencing affected the science of classifying organisms?

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DNA sequencing has made it easier to classify organisms by making it possible to map
the organism’s traits and characteristics and link it to other organisms. It also makes it
possible to view traits that are present on a molecular or non-viewable level.
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1. You are on vacation and see an organism that you do not recognize. Discuss what
possible steps you can take to classify it.
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I would first attempt to look at it’s physical characteristics and see if it is an animal,
plant, or other type of organism. Part of this would be looking carefully for the organisms
mobility, way of gaining energy (photosynthesis, eating via mouth, eating via absorption),
etc. After that I would try to narrow it down by observing things such as teeth (canines

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 for an omnivore or carnivore, flat teeth or molars for a vegetarian), hair or lack of,
feathers or lack of, method of mobility (whether it uses legs, swims, flies, or glides). I
could try to make a link between the organism and organisms with similar traits.

Experiment 1: Dichotomous Keys

Post-Lab Questions
1. What do you notice about the options of each step as they go from number one up?

The questions get more specific and start listing more varied characteristics or
traits of the organism. In other words, it starts by just categorizing if the organism
is a plant or animal and gets more and more specific until it gets to a trait as
varied as coloration. It starts to narrow the possible choices down.

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2. How does your answer from Question 1 relate to the Linnaean classification system?

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This relates because Linnaean classification follows a similar pattern to differentiate and

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classify organisms. It starts with domain, which is broad and includes quite a few

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organisms, and then it goes down the list (domain, kingdom, phylum, class, orde, family,
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genus) to species, which only includes the organisms that fit into a very specific set of
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criteria.
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Experiment 2: Classification of Organisms

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Post-Lab Questions
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1. Did this series of questions correctly organize each organism? Why or why not?
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These questions did correctly organize each organism because it had enough
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questions about identifying characteristics or traits of the organisms.

2. What additional questions would you ask to further categorize the items within the
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kingdoms (Hint: think about other organisms in the kingdom and what makes them different than
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the examples used here)?

Questions regarding if the animal was a vertebrate or not could have been asked.
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Or, there could have been questions on whether the organism had hair or scales
or legs.

3. What questions would you have asked instead of the ones that you answered about
when classifying the organisms?

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 I think I would have asked the same questions, except the one regarding
specialized cells. I would have a phrased it as whether or not the organism was
multicellular or unicellular, since that question lead to some confusion on my end
before I realized what it meant.

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