Exercise 1
1. List the eight major taxonomic ranks. Think of a living species that was not mentioned in this lab and indicate its classification at each of the taxonomic ranks.
2. Name the domain and kingdom to which the organisms in Data Table 1 belong.
3. According to the document describing animal phyla, members of phylum Porifera are asymmetrical. Was it necessary to include this characteristic in the phylogenetic tree? Explain your answer.
4. According to the phylogenetic tree, is phylum Echinodermata more closely related to phylum Chordata or phylum Arthropoda? Explain your answer.
Data Table 1: Description of Branches for the 12 Phyla of Kingdom Animalia
|
Branch Number
|
Characteristic
|
Phyla
|
|
1
|
Animals have no true tissues
|
Phylum Porifera
|
|
2
|
Animals have true tissues
|
All phyla except Porifera
|
|
3
|
|
|
|
4
|
|
|
|
5
|
|
|
|
6
|
|
|
|
7
|
|
|
|
8
|
|
|
|
9
|
|
|
|
10
|
|
|
|
11
|
|
|
|
12
|
|
|
Exercise 2
1. What is a dichotomous key? How does a dichotomous key work?
2. What is the absolute least number of couplets that may be used to identify the household items?
3. Describe some characteristics that are shared among all of the items. Why are shared characteristics not included in a dichotomous key?
Data Table 2: Dichotomous Key of Common Items
|
Step
|
Description
|
Item name or Instruction
|
|
1.a.
|
|
|
|
1.b.
|
|
|
|
2.a.
|
|
|
|
2.b.
|
|
|
|
3.a.
|
|
|
|
3.b.
|
|
|
|
4.a.
|
|
|
|
4.b.
|
|
|
|
5.a.
|
|
|
|
5.b.
|
|
|
|
6.a.
|
|
|
|
6.b.
|
|
|
Exercise 3
1. What was the lowest taxonomic rank (phylum, class, order, etc.) to which you were able to identify organisms? What evidence in Figure 12 supports this answer?
2. In the dichotomous key, what characteristics set Spirogyra apart from other organisms? Based on your observations of the slides, describe at least one other characteristic that sets Spirogyra apart from the other organisms.
3. Which two organisms were most closely related? Support your answer.
4. Why might describing the color of the organisms not be useful in the dichotomous key?
5. Discuss the purpose of taxonomy and systematics in understanding the variation of life forms and why they are important for biologists.
Data Table 3: Organism Identification
|
Slide
|
Organism Name
|
Phylum
|
|
A
|
|
|
|
B
|
|
|
|
C
|
|
|
|
D
|
|
|
|
E
|
|
|