TREE OF LIFE ASSIGNMENT BIODIVERSITY

Patterns of Species Diversity I

Species

•  Variation in life’s form is not continuous.

Species

•  Variation in life’s form is not continuous. •  Life comes in discrete packages.

Species

•  Variation in life’s form is not continuous. •  Life comes in discrete packages. •  These distinct entities are species.

Species

•  Variation in life’s form is not continuous. •  Life comes in discrete packages. •  these distinct entities are species •  Objectively real; not artificial constructs.

Species

•  Evolution not only produces changes over time within a lineage, but also creates new lineages.

Change within lineage

Creation of new lineage

Species

•  Evolution must produce not only changes over time within a lineage, but must also create new lineages.

•  What mechanisms create and maintain new species?

What is a species?

•  Not fully addressed until 1930s -- Dobzhansky, Mayr.

What is a species?

•  Not fully addressed until 1930s -- Dobzhansky, Mayr.

•  Thought of species as reproductive communities.

The Biological Species Concept

•  “Species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups.”

Taxonomy Science of classifying organisms.

Ocelot

Bobcat

Margay

Jaguar

Taxonomic Classification

Nested Hierarchy

Taxonomic Categories Taxonomic Designations

Taxonomic Classification of Leopard

Panthera pardus (binomial nomenclature)

Panthera

Big Cats

can Roar.

Leopards

Leopards

Felidae Retractable

Claws

Leopards

Carnivora Carnassial teeth

Leopards

Mammalia Mammary

glands Hair

Chordata Notochord

Dorsal Nerve

Leopards

Leopards

Animalia

Leopards

Eukarya

What about groups of mammals?

How are they related?

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Systematics Science of determining evolutionary relationships

among organisms.

Shared derived characteristics

Synapomorphies

Carnassial teeth

Retractable claws

Musk glands

Long legs, lithe bodies

Defensive Musk Gland