Animal Ecology Background
Theories: unifying explanations of the natural world
Proximate questions: deal with mechanisms. Don’t always need evolutionary explanations
Ultimate questions: concerned with evolutionary origins and functions
Induction: inference of general law from observations
Hypothesis: possible explanation for observation
Carolus Linnaeus: binomial nomenclature
Nomenclature: system of rules for naming things
Taxonomy: naming and classifying organisms
Systematics: theory and practice of classifying organisms based on evolutionary history
Phylogeny: evolutionary history
Binomial nomenclature has 3 parts: genus name and specific name. Together make species name
Phylogenetic trees: show evolutionary relationship between organisms. Only a hypothesis
Taxon is a named group at any level of classification
Clade: a valid group includes the ancestor at any node and everything beyond it. Implies common ancestor.
Rooted: common ancestor is identified
Cladograms: branching diagrams showing evolutionary relationships
Clade: group of organisms related by evolutionary history
Sister taxa are related most closely ( 1 branch)
Polytomy: unresolved phylogeny: 3 branch point
In-group: group who’s relationship is of study
Out-group: one or more taxa that are related to the in-group but diverged at an earlier time
Best hypothesis is the simplest one.
Paraphyletic group: do not contain all descendants of a common ancestor. Removal of highly divergent taxa
Monophyletic clade: A group of taxa that consists of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Equal to a clade.
Character: type of structure, behavior, DNA etc
State: manifestation of that character – eye color, etc
Parsimony: set of nested relationships that minimizes number of times a character changes states
Occam’s razor: Keep it simple stupid
Synapomorphy: shared derived trait such as amniotic egg. Eg. Back bone is synapomorhpy in vertebrates relative to non-vertebras
Symplesiomorphy: shared ancestral state. So
Proximate questions: deal with mechanisms. Don’t always need evolutionary explanations
Ultimate questions: concerned with evolutionary origins and functions
Induction: inference of general law from observations
Hypothesis: possible explanation for observation
Carolus Linnaeus: binomial nomenclature
Nomenclature: system of rules for naming things
Taxonomy: naming and classifying organisms
Systematics: theory and practice of classifying organisms based on evolutionary history
Phylogeny: evolutionary history
Binomial nomenclature has 3 parts: genus name and specific name. Together make species name
Phylogenetic trees: show evolutionary relationship between organisms. Only a hypothesis
Taxon is a named group at any level of classification
Clade: a valid group includes the ancestor at any node and everything beyond it. Implies common ancestor.
Rooted: common ancestor is identified
Cladograms: branching diagrams showing evolutionary relationships
Clade: group of organisms related by evolutionary history
Sister taxa are related most closely ( 1 branch)
Polytomy: unresolved phylogeny: 3 branch point
In-group: group who’s relationship is of study
Out-group: one or more taxa that are related to the in-group but diverged at an earlier time
Best hypothesis is the simplest one.
Paraphyletic group: do not contain all descendants of a common ancestor. Removal of highly divergent taxa
Monophyletic clade: A group of taxa that consists of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Equal to a clade.
Character: type of structure, behavior, DNA etc
State: manifestation of that character – eye color, etc
Parsimony: set of nested relationships that minimizes number of times a character changes states
Occam’s razor: Keep it simple stupid
Synapomorphy: shared derived trait such as amniotic egg. Eg. Back bone is synapomorhpy in vertebrates relative to non-vertebras
Symplesiomorphy: shared ancestral state. So