Binomial Nomenclature

andGeneral
Cladistics
Biology II
Objectives:
Describe the characteristics of the classification of organisms;
Describe the concept of phylogenetic classification;
Explain cladistics as a method for phylogenetic classification; and
Draw a phylogenetic tree.
Taxonomic Categories: Characteristics and Examples
Domain is the highest Taxonomic rank in the
hierarchical biological classification system above the
kingdom level.Archaea, Bacteria, Eukaryota are the
subclassification of Domain.
Kingdom is the second highest category in biological
classification. It is a group of closely related
organisms. Taxonomists have also developed
subcategories in this higher key for more sound and
scientific placement of various taxa.
Phylum is a group of related animal classes. Birds,
along with mammals, are members of the same
Phylum Chordata because of the presence of
notochord and dorsal hollow nerve cord.
Class is a group of related orders. For example, Order
Primata comprising monkeys, gorillas and gibbons are
placed in Class Mammalia along with order Carnivora
which includes animals like tiger, cat, and dog all
having a common feature that is hair on skin and milk
glands.
Order is a group of related families that exhibit a few
similar characters. For example, plant families like
Convolvulaceae, Solanaceae are included in the same
orderbased on the floral characters. In animals,
Family Felidae and Canidae are included in the same
Order Carnivora.
Family is a group of the related genus. They have still
less number of similarities as compared to genus and
species.
Genus is a group of species which are alike in broad
features of their organization but different in details.
Species in a genus have a common ancestry. This may
be the reason for their close similarities.
Species is the lowest taxonomic category. It consists
of individuals which have fundamental similarities
and can be distinguished from other closely related
species due to distinct morphological characters.
Kingdom Animalia
All animals are eukaryotic, multicellular organisms and
almost all animals have a complex tissue structure with
differentiated and specialized tissues. Most animals are
motile and all animals require a source of food and are
therefore heterotrophic, ingesting other living or dead
organisms. Most animals reproduce sexually and the
offspring passes through a series of developmental
stages that established a determined and fixed body
plan.
Some of the different phylum of the animal kingdom are as
follows:
Porifera
Coelenterata (Cnidaria)
Nematoda
Annelida
Arthropoda
Mollusca
Echinodermata
Chordata
Phylum Porifera
Porifera means organisms with holes. They are commonly
known as Sponges. Features of the poriferan are:
• Non-motile, multicellular organisms with a hard outer
skeleton.
• Have a porous body.
• Pores on the bodies create a canal system which helps in
the circulation of substances.
• Do not have a well-developed organ or organ system.
• Include marine habitat.
Phylum Coelenterata (Cnidaria)
The term Coelenteratais derived from the Greek word
“kilos” which means hollow-bellied. Their features
are:
•Have a hollow body cavity.
•The body is differentiated into two ends.
•Includes all aquatic animals.
•The body is made of two layers of cells: inner and
outer linings.
Phylum Nematoda
Consists of nematodes or roundworms. Their features
are:
•Have pseudocoelom, a false body cavity.
•Possess digestive, nervous, excretory, and
reproductive systems, but lack a discrete circulatory
or respiratory system.
•Parasitic and causes diseases such as elephantiasis,
ascariasis.
Phylum Annelida
Annelids are commonly known as segmented or
ringed worms. They have the following features:
•Characterized by the possession of a body cavity (or
coelom), movable bristles (or setae)
•Body divided into segments by transverse rings, or
annulations, from which they take their name.
Phylum Arthropoda
Arthropod means jointed legs. Animals which have
jointed appendages belong to this phylum. This is the
largest phylum in the animal kingdom. Other features
are:
Presence of a jointed skeletal covering composed of
chitin.
Have an open circulatory system, but do not have
differentiated blood vessels.
Phylum Mollusca
Mollusk, any soft-bodied invertebrate, usually wholly
or partly enclosed in a calcium carbonate shell secreted
by a soft mantle covering the body.
Phylum Echinodermata
The term Echinodermata is derived from the Greek
words, echinos meaning hedgehog and derma meaning
skin. Thus, echinoderms are spiny-skinned animals.
Phylum Chordata
The most highly evolved animals. Life cycle a
chordate possesses a stiff, dorsal supporting rod (the
notochord). Also characteristic of the chordates are a
tail that extends behind and above the anus, a hollow
nerve cord above.
Class under Phylum Chordata:
Fish Amphibians
Reptiles Birds
Mammals
Fish - earliest vertebrates, with jawless species being the
earliest and jawed species evolving later. They are active
feeders.
Amphibians - are vertebrate tetrapods. As tetrapods, they
are characterized by four well- developed limbs, extant
amphibians is a moist, permeable skin that is achieved via
mucus glands that keep the skin moist.
Reptiles - limbless reptiles- snakes and other squamates-
have vestigial limbs and like caecilians, are classified as
tetrapods because they are descended from four- limbed
ancestors. They lay eggs and usually reproduce sexually
with internal fertilization.
Birds - the characteristics that sets the birds apart
from other vertebrates is the presence of
feathers,which are modified scales. Birds rely on
feathers and wings along with other modifications of
body structure and physiology, for flight.
Mammals - are vertebrates that possess hair and
mammary glands. Although it is not very extensive
on certain species, such as whales. Mammals are
endothermic and hair provides insulation to retain
heat.
Class under Phylum Porifera
Calcarea - contains calcium spicules and no spongin
Hexactinellida - contains six- rayed siliceous spicules and
no spongin
Demospongia - contains spongin and may or may not have
spicules; if present, those spicules are siliceous.
Class under Phylum Porifera
Anthozoa - exhibit a polyp body plan only/ no medusa
stage within their life cycle. Ex. sea anemones, sea pens
and corals.
Scyphozoa - the medusa is prominent stage in the life
cycle, although there is a polyp stage present.
Class under Phylum Porifera
Cubozoa - includes jellies that have a box- shaped medusa,
or bell that is square in cross- section; hence,are
colloquially known as “box jellyfish”. A prominent
difference between the two classes is the arrangement of
tentacles. This the most venomous group of all the
cnidarians.
Hydrozoa - the true characteristic shared by all of the
diverse species is that their gonads for sexual reproduction
are derived from epithermal tissue, whereas in all other
cnidarians they are derived from gastrodermal tissue.
Class under Phylum Mollusca
Bivalvia (“two shells”); (clams, oyster, mussels,
scallops, and geoducks)
Gastropoda (“stomach foot”); (snails, slugs,conchs, sea
hares and sea butterflies)
Cephalocoda (“head foot animals”); (octopi, squids,
cuttlefish and nautilus)
Scaphopoda (“boat feet”, “tusk shells”, “tooth shells”)
Phylogenetic
What is Phylogenetic Systematics?
• Phylogenetics is the study of known or hypothesized
evolutionary relationships based on the phylogeny (lineage)
of grouped organisms. It shows that closely related species
share a common ancestor.
• A phylogeny is usually represented by a tree diagram called a
phylogenetic tree.
• Modern biologists still use phylogenetic trees to represent
how taxa (groups of organisms) evolved in a specific order as
life diversified and branched out from a common ancestor.
This phylogenetic tree shows how
species 1, 2, and 3 are related to
one another through common
ancestors. The branching points
represent common ancestors. A
common ancestor is the last
ancestor species that two
descendant species shared before
they took different evolutionary
paths. In the tree, species 1 and 2
shared a more recent common
ancestor than with species 3.
Therefore, species 1 and 2 are more
closely related than species 3.
What is Cladistics?
•Cladistics analyzes how organisms are related, based
on traits of ancestor and descendent species. Cladistics
was developed in the 1950s by a scientist named Willi
Hennig, a German biologist who is considered the
founder of phylogenetic systematics.
•One way of classifying organisms that show phylogeny
is by using the clade. A clade is a group of organisms
that includes an ancestor and all its descendants.
Clades are based on cladistics. Clades are represented
by cladograms.
•A cladogram is a diagram that shows evolutionary
relationships within one or more clades.
Constructed cladograms all typically share certain key
features:
Root - The initial ancestor common to all organisms within the
cladogram (incoming line shows it originates from a larger
clade)
Nodes - Each node corresponds to a hypothetical common
ancestor that speciated to give rise to two (or more) daughter
taxa
Outgroup - The most distantly related species in the cladogram
which functions as a point of comparison and reference group
Clades - A common ancestor and all its descendants (i.e., a node
and all its connected branches)
Cladograms may be constructed using the following types of
evidence and procedures that can be used to establish
evolutionary relationships.
1. Using structural
evidence
a. Use characteristics that are
developmentally fixed (i.e.,
innate) and not influenced by
environmental pressures.
b. Sequentially order
organisms according to
shared characteristics
2. Using molecular evidence Comparing a gene or protein
common to a range of selected organisms.

Consider the example in the table. The table shows how similar
the DNA of several animal species is to human DNA.