Systematics

Chapter 4
Finding Order in Nature
• People have classified the natural
world for thousands of years based on
traits such as:
• edibility - “We can eat these plants,
but not these.”
• cultural meaning - “These animals
are sacred, these are evil.”
• utility - “These animals pull our
plows, those we shear for wool.”
Naturalistic Systematics
• Around the 18th century,
naturalists sought to classify nature
in a way that reflected nature,
rather than the way humans use
nature.
• Of course, there was disagreement
about what constituted a “natural”
system, or even if a “natural”
system was necessary.
Linnaeu • In 1735, Carl von Linnae
(“Linnaeus”) published
s Systema Naturae, a new
approach to classifying nature
that used nested hierarchies.
Today’s system is grounded in
this method.

• 1736: Linnaeus published a

system of binomial
nomenclature, still in use
today.
There’s no
systematic • 1753: Linnaeus published
organization
of anything! Species Plantarum, describing
I’m going to and classifying known
fix that!
organisms.
Carolus Linnaeus

Swedish botanist, physician,

and zoologist
Founder of modern zoology,
having created the binominal
nomenclature in 1758.

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 Linnaean System
• Three Kingdoms of
nature: Plants,
Animals, Minerals.

• Within each
Kingdom,
organisms are
organized into
nested
hierarchies.
LINNAEAN CLASSIFICATION
• Every organism is
assigned a scientific
name which
immediately indicates
its GENUS and
SPECIFIC EPITHET

• Species are also

assigned to a family,
order, class, phylum,
kingdom and domain.
Linnaeus’ system was considered “artificial,” based
on observable external features. However, it was so
useful for identifying organisms that most people
preferred it over other systems, even though some
naturalists disagreed with Linnaeus’ approach - and
each other.

Hierarchical
classification
is fine, but it
must be
natural.

Oui, mon
professeur,
classification should
be natural, but a
hierarchy is not
Buffon natural.
Cuvier
 BINOMIAL
• Two-term naming system that uses two
NOMENCLATURE
different terms to name the species, plants,
animals and living organisms.
• Consist of a generic epithet which is genus
(category) of that species, and specific
epithet which indicates the species itself.
 timeline of the proposed classification
schemes

©http://haylingbillyheritage.org/category/taxonomy-terms/
 2 Kingdom system
• Linnaeus divided
all living things
into two
kingdoms: Plants
and Animals.

• Up until the
1960’s, textbooks
used the 2
Kingdom System
to describe the
living world.
 Moves, consumes
However... food = animal-like

• Linnaeus developed
his system at a time
when the microbial
world was a new
discovery. Am I a
plant? Am I
an animal?
• Many one-celled
organisms, such as
Euglena, don’t fit
well in a 2 Kingdom
system. Has chloroplasts,
photosynthesizes
= plant-like
 Let’s vote!
1. Euglena should be
54%
classed as an animal
because it moves
and can eat food
particles.
2. Euglena should be
classed as a plant
because it 46%
photosynthesizes
and makes its own
food.

1 2
Another problem…

• What are some

other issues that We both fly!
you can think of
with a
Are we
classification related?
system that is
based on
appearance?
Which pair of organisms
is genetically most
similar?

B C
A
33% 33% 33%

1. A is most like B
2. B is most like C
3. A is most like C

1 2 3
 Analogous
structures:
Solutions to a common
challenge

Homologous
structures:
Inherited similarities
 Classifying by Common
Descent
• Darwin’s contribution, That’s right!
Lots of people
the Theory of Natural think I was the
Selection, suggested first to come up
with the idea of
that all living Evolution, but
organisms are related my theory was
Natural
by descent. selection.

• If we can understand
patterns of descent, It was that
we can design better Lamarck
fellow before
nature-based me who first
classification used the term
“Evolution” to
systems. talk about
living things.
Clues of evolutionary history and common
ancestry
Clues: Unique & shared
features
• Fossils
• Anatomy of extant species
• Genetic code
Whittaker The
outdated 2-
Kingdom
system has
got to go!
• Robert Whittaker,
working in the 1940s-
70s, was dissatisfied
with the old 2-
But what is a
kingdom systems. better
system that
really
• Developed first a 3- reflects
kingdom system nature?

(Fungi, Plants,
Animals) and later a 5-
kingdom system.
• Whittaker’s system
was still essentially
hierarchical - with
“lower” or “primitive”
organisms at the
bottom.

• 3 Kingdom system -
Plant, Animal, Fungi -
was based on
nutrition.

• However, Whittaker
was reaching for a
system based on
phylogeny:
evolutionary ancestry.
 Domains • More recently, a new
taxonomic level has
been added above
Kingdoms: Domains.

• Living things are divided

into three non-
hierarchical Domains:
Domain
Domains
• Bacteria

• Archaea
Kingdom
s within
Domain • Eukarya
Eukarya
 Peptidoglycan in No peptidoglycan
cell walls; 1 RNA in cell walls; 3 RNA
polymerase; react polymerases; Membrane-bound
to antibiotics in a enzymes similar to organelles; linear
different way than Eukaryotes; chromosomes;
Archaea do. extremophiles. larger, more
complex cells.

Prokaryotic Eukaryotic

Kingdoms within Bacteria and Archaea are as yet

undecided. Eukaryotic Kingdoms, too, may
change.
 Which of these groups is
prokaryotic?
1. Plants
49%
2. Animals
3. Protists
4. Fungi
29%
5. Bacteria
6. Answers 3, 4, and
5 16%

7. All except the 6%

Animals 0% 0% 0%

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
To what Domain do moss plants
and ferns belong?

92%

1. Bacteria
2. Archaea
3. Eukarya

6%
2%

1 2 3
Based on the diagram we looked at earlier,
which group of organisms is most diverse?

1. Animals
72%
2. Plants
3. Bacteria

16%
12%

1 2 3
Classifying Organisms

• Systematists develop classifications

based on evolutionary relationships.
They tend to look at:
• anatomy - a traditional method.
• molecular data - to examine
genetic similarities and
differences.
Anatomy
•Anatomical
comparisons help
identify organisms and
can suggest Both microscopic and macroscopic
relationships. Anatomy features may be important.
can be see in fossils as
well as modern
organisms.

•Drawback: Analogous
traits in unrelated
organisms can be
misleading.
 Molecular
•DNA analysis can
determine how closely
two populations are
related and show what
genes are shared.

•Drawback: Requires
intensive, often
expensive lab work;
difficult for field
workers. Rare to find
DNA in fossils.
 Which of these is a good phylogenetic
definition of what a species is?
1. A population of
organisms whose 86%
members look alike.
2. The smallest
distinguishable group
that contains all the
descendants of a
single common
ancestor
3. A group of organisms
living in the same 6% 8%
place and using the
same sources of food. 1 2 3
• When evolutionary biologists say,
“Humans and chimpanzees share a W
common ancestor,” which of these O
do they mean? R
K
• Chimpanzees stopped evolving
long ago, but humans continued T
O
to evolve.
G
• Humans came from chimpanzees. E
T
• Both humans and chimpanzees H
E
descend from an extinct primate
R
that lived several million years
ago.
Which of these qualify as
living organisms?
25% 25% 25% 25%

1. Viruses
2. Viroids
3. Prions
4. None of these

1 2 3 4
 DICHOTOMOUS
KEY
Method used to identify a
species by answering a
series of questions based
on contrasting features
(eg: physical
characteristics) that have
two possible outcomes.
 HOW TO MAKE A DICHOTOMOUS
KEY
Step 1: List down the
contrasting features
Step 2: Divide the
specimens
Step 3: Divide the
specimen even further
Step 4: Draw a
dichotomous key
diagram
 Let’s Evaluate

Construct a dichotomous key from the Feline family :

I. Jaguar
II. Cheetah
III. Wildcat
IV. Panther
V. Snow Leopard
VI. Lion
VII. Tiger
VIII. Lynx
 Activity 2
MAKE THAT DICHO KEY

Objectives: Learners will construct theirQuestions

1. What are the traits
dichotomous key.
that you've used in
Material: Worksheet order to construct you

Procedures: dichotomous key? Why

did you use these?
1. Carefully observe the traits of each animal.
2. Is dichotomous key
2. Make a list of traits to sort the animals into way to classif
reliable

groups. organism? If yes, Why?

If no, Why not?
3. Make a dichotomous key using the traits you’ve
3. What is the
 Constructing Trees
• Systematists compare as many
features as possible when
constructing phylogenetic trees.
• Computers are often used to
compare relatedness between
different species.
• New data or new understanding of
data may change the trees.
 Less derived More derived

present

Each line
represents
a species.

time
Forks
represent
speciation
events.

Figure 16-11a Biology: Life on Earth 8/e ©2008 Pearson Prentice Hall, Inc.
past
DNA sequences are often used in constructing
phylogenetic trees. Ancestral DNA may be
inferred from living species. In rare instances,
DNA may be recovered from fossils.
 Systematists try to identify groups that are
monophyletic: modern species that all appear
to have descended from one common
ancestor.
 Plants, Animals, and Fungi form distinct groups
on the Eukaryotic branch of the phylogenetic
tree.

“Kingdom Protista” turns out to be polyphyletic.

This group may end up being divided into several
Kingdoms.
Molecular data have show than some well-known
groups, thought to be well-defined, are not
monophyletic.

We may have to re-think our ideas about

what birds and reptiles really are!
 Do these phylogenies show
the same hypotheses?
Bacteria Archaea Eukaryotes Bacteria Eukarya Archaea

50% 50%

1. Yes
2. No

1 2
True or False: Derived (more recent)
organisms are always more complex,
better, and more advanced than
ancestral organisms.
50% 50%
1. True
2. False

1 2
 What’s happening at the
marked spots on this tree?
25% 25% 25% 25%

1. Extinction
2. Speciation
3. Selection
4. Mutation
1 2 3 4
• Suppose a systematist has these DNA
sequences from the hemoglobin gene. Which W
of these species are most closely related to
the proposed ancestor? Which are the least O
related to the ancestor? R
K
• Chimpanzee:
AGG CCC CTT CCA ACC GGA TTA T
O
• Gorilla: G
AGG CCC CTT CCA ACC AGG CC E
T
• Human: H
AGG CAT AAA CCA ACC GAT TA E
R
• Proposed ancestor:
AGG CCG GCT CCA ACC AGG CC
• If these primate groups are all
W
related, the systematist knows
O
there are three ways to express the R
relationships. Which of the following K
trees best fits the data?
T
G C H G C H G H C O
G
E
T
1 2 3 H
E
A A A R
 One well-
supported
and widely-
accepted
interpretation
of genetic
relationships
between
modern
primates.
 Not only can we find
evolutionary
relationships between
organisms, we can
also find relationships
between the diseases
that affect them. This
tree shows
relationships between
AIDS-causing viruses
in humans and several
modern primates,
which helps us
understand the host-
jumping disease itself.
Remember, trees such as these do not say that
humans descend from other modern primates.
“Man came from monkeys” is a common
misperception of what evolution means.
Phylogenetic trees trace common shared genes
between groups, and infer shared ancestors
based on relationships between modern
organisms.

So - humans do not descend from modern apes

or monkeys. Trying to discover where humans
do come from has been difficult.
One difficulty in working out human phylogeny is
that there is only one modern species of humans.
Also, hominid fossils are rare. The human family
tree has many question marks on it!
 Chimp and human genomes have
been accumulating genetic change
since their ancestral group split at:
25% 25% 25% 25%

1. A A
B
2. B C
D
3. C
4. D
1 2 3 4
 Recap
• Modern Systematics seeks to
classify organisms according to
evolutionary relationships.
• Anatomical and molecular data are
used to infer relatedness between
modern organisms.
• Data from fossil evidence is also
used to build phylogenetic trees.