Binary Fission- Binary fission is simple cell division. It is only done in monera and protista, monera are bacteria. Binary fission has all cells divide in unison. If humans divided by binary fission, all 100 trillion cells would have to divide at once. Binary fission is only in growth and repair of human wounds.

Parthenogenesis- Parthenogenesis is in bees. It is the differentiation of an unfertilized egg. You do not need a male for Parthenogenesis. Normally, in sexual reproduction it takes 10,000 sperm to penetrate the egg protein material. When one hits the membrane, a chemical reaction is made so no other sperm get in. Insects do not have fertility problems due to Parthenogenesis, the female insects flies with the male and he leaves enough sperm. Female buries herself under the ground and becomes a factory for eggs. One sperm is good for one egg and the sperm are good for a couple of years. In honeybees, the bee lays eggs without fertilization and it makes a male, which are haploid. If the larva is fed royal jelly it gets fairly large and is haploid. Drones, male bees are killed in the winter. Every bee is sterile except when the females feed the egg royal jelly. Egg hatches and feeds the larva. Aphids overwinter as an egg and they hatch in the early spring but some of them don’t. Aphids give birth to little insects by Parthenogenesis. They have offspring who already have offspring. This is why they can reproduce in three days. They lay eggs in autumn, and then produce clones. In august, they have sexual reproduction and become diploid instead of haploid. Diversity is achieved by asexual reproduction so natural selection can shape the population. In Zion’s Canyons, there is an all female group of lizards because they all reproduce by Parthenogenesis. They have found the perfect species and can not change. The perpetuate clones to live in the environment so no more evolution. In early spring there are dandelions. They undergo diploid parthenogenesis, if you do not fertilize them they still reproduce.

Regeneration- Earthworms have selum and if you cut it into two, it bleeds to death. Planera do not have circulatory systems and regenerate into two pieces which make two worms. Planera’s can be regenerated because of undifferentiated cells. They do not have male or female characteristics. The Wandering Jew has meristemic tissue and it also reproduces by regeneration. Pathos has roots with regeneration because they have undifferentiated tissue. Starfish have regeneration if you cut off a part of the arm and central disk. When fisherman cut starfish up because they clanged to oysters, they just made more starfish. The lizards tail has undifferentiated tissue which grows back every time but each time it is shorter.

Budding- Budding is in coelenterates. Offspring grows off the side of the old one. A new individual forms. This type of asexual reproduction occurs in yeast.

Soft Stem Cuttings- Soft stem cuttings in roots are easy to grow. Pathos has roots along its nose. If you want more, all you have to do is put it in the water. Take a cutting off it and start it growing. Take the stem of a plant with nodes and cut of the leaves up to 4 node on it. Dip the bare nodes in rooting hormone and then plant the plant, placing a glass over it to keep the humidity up. Occasionally, lift the glass to give the plant air. Roses would work with soft stem cuttings

Division- Paphioros grows into clumps by divisions. You can tear it apart to get separate individuals. It divides. One must divide a plant that grows from bulbs, because other wise all the bulbs grow around too close and starve each other. Therefore you separate the bulbs such as in tulips

Stolons- A Stolon is a strawberry plant and is an above ground stem. If the root touches the ground, then you have a new plant. A stolon is a "stem" (kind of) that grows a certain distance and then grows another plant. Spider plants are another example.

Spores- Spores are not seeds but they are microscopic and in fungus it starts new hyphe. Sorea are sporanga. Sporanga produce spores and sporanga on ferns. Ferns do not have seeds. Hyphe is the body of a fungus and they start to grow and germinate. Microscopic spores do not have seed coats or parts of a seed, they are a spore. Ferns reproduce by spores, as do almost all fungus.

Platelets- Little plant’s that grow on the leaf of some plants, such as Kalanchoës. They get so heavy after a while that they fall off and grow in soil. They are an easy way to grow you own plant.

Bulblets- The bulblets should be separated by bulbs. Tulips are reproduced by bulblets. The stalk of the garlic plant usually produces flowers and tiny bulblets, but no seeds. The cloves from the root bulb or from the top bulblets are used to start new plants. A garlic crop is planted in early spring. When the bulbs become full grown in the fall, they are dug up and dried.

Rhizomes- Rhizomes are underground stems. Blackberries and raspberries reproduce by rhizomes. Rhizomes spread all over the place. Meristemic tissue is actively growing tissue at the node and the tip which is undifferentiated. Rhizomes produce meristemic tissue every once in a while where plant grows. Raspberries grow from underground rhizomes as do blackberries. Quaking Aspen are in clumps, such as the 48 acre clump in Utah.

Rhizoids- Rhizoids are also clumped. They grow stems, and do not have underground. They are found in mosses, and are moisture absorbing root structure. They absorb and make new plants with meristemic tissue. The new ones are exact copy. Rhizoids are also found in ferns and primitive plants. Ferns must have the proper environment to do rhizoids.

Grafting- Grafting is when you connect permanently the stem of one plant to the stem or root of any flower. This is like the amazing tree of many fruits you showed us in class. You can do this with an apple tree. Grafting begins by making a vertical cut 1 inch long in the stock branch, slicing down the wood. Make cut at point where stock branch measures from ¼ to ½ inch in diameter. Make a horizontal cut 1/3 round the branch. Pry up the corners where the cuts intersect. Slice under a strong bud on budstick, starting ½ inch below the bud and finishing 1 inch above it. Remove a shielded shaped piece of bark with the bud by cutting about ¾ inch above the bud, slicing downward and leave some wood attached. Push bud shield down into loosened bark flaps on the stock, being careful not to damage the bud. Bind the cut with plastic tape, leaving the cut exposed. Additional methods of grafting are below:

Cleft Graft- Split the stick, shape one end sharp, put wedge in and sticks to hold it open and cover it with grafting wax

Bark Graft- Make slits for scions, stick and drive wire brad through it, cover it with grafting wax and start it growing.

Tissue Cultures- Boston ferns can be grown out of meristemic tissue. It is grown in a test tube from 2 to 3 cells. It has the perfect nutrient medium and is perfectly sterile, no diseases. If you put it in perfect light, moisture and condition, it grows fast.. Boston ferns can be grown very fast in 12 weeks and a lot of it. Tissue culturing is universal and can be used on extinct plants. This can also distribute plants.

Leaf Cuttings- Some plants have meristemic tissue in the petal like the Jade plant. The leaf drops and a new root forms. Sansevieria, Begonias, and the African Violet have leaf cuttings as do various succulent plants. You can have a sterile rooting medium so there are no bacteria for the plant while it grows roots. When it does, do not put water on it. In succulents take the base of the leaf and put it on moist soil and it will grow In African Violets, you just have to insert leaf stalk into the rooting medium and leave a bit of leaf stalk attached to the leaf. Sanseveria is cut into segments and right side up it is inserted into the rooting medium. New plants will sprout out from the base of each leaf section and it can be transplanted. To multiply begonias, take several main veins of leaf under side and put leaf in soil, so the veins are in contact with it and plant’s will grow from the leaf’s upper-side.

Suckers- In banana’s, two to four stalks are usually allowed to grow in a clump. Each stalk bears fruit once, dies, and is cut to the ground. New stalks arise from shoots, or suckers, that have developed from the underground root. Each clump, by this method, continues to produce bananas for many years. The first fruit matures 12 to 14 months after planting.

Air Layering- In air layering, you take a knife and cut underneath the node, cutting halfway through. Stick a matchstick in the wound and put root hormone in it. You put a bag around it with rooting compound or soil. Air layering is handy for propagation in the winter. You can get roots to grow while it is still attached to the mother plant. Don’t cut all the way through, because you would cut the phloem. Rooting hormone speeds up air layering. In air layering, cut only halfway through. If you remove the ring of bark, it will be slower. In bag you can have moss or potting soil

Root cuttings- A plant that produces sprouts from the roots will grow from root cuttings. Examples are the Japanese anemone, Oriental poppy, trumpet creeper, blackberry, and raspberry. Cut roots into 1-3 inch pieces and put them into potting mix, sand, etc. covered ½ inch. Then place glass or cardboard on the box. When sprouts show, remove covering. To make many root cuttings, set them horizontally in large flats with a few cuttings, and position them upright in a pot.

Budding (plant style)- It is like a graft. The bud that comes out is cut out and inserted into another bud, transferring the bud instead of whole branch. A notch is cut along node, cambium is lined up and tied. You can do it with roses, fruit trees, or other kinds of shrubs.

Hardwood cuttings- The way you do a rosebush. You take a stem with 4 nodes, and you collect it in the fall. Take the stems and put them into something moist, like sawdust. Roses are also done like this. It has to be moist, not wet. It makes cells called callos which dry out. You can use root medium. Now you have gone through the winter. In spring, plant 2 nodes and put something like a bottle over it. Two nodes are left above. Underground will be roots and above ground will be leafs. The bottle is there so it will stay dry.

Cloning- Every Asexual method is cloning, all forms are. Cloning can be a graft, and it makes an exact copy. Tissue Cultures, Air Layering, Soft Stem Cuttings, etc. are all clones. You do not have variation because that is in sexual reproduction. Variation is for evolution so some plants clone (asexual reproduction), and also undergo sexual reproduction.

2. Explain different methods in the classification of living things.

Humans have been naming and describing organisms since the beginning of language. Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosopher and naturalist Aristotle (384-322 BC) grouped plants and animals on the basis of their structural similarities. This simple classification system was expanded by later Greeks and Romans, who grouped plants and animals into basic categories such as oaks, dogs, and horses. Eventually each unit of classification was called a genus, the Latin word for "group". The plural of genus is genera. Starting in the Middle Ages, a genus was given a name in Latin, the language of scholars. Thus, cats were assigned to the genus Felis, dogs to Canis, and horses to Equus. The science of naming and classifying organism is called taxonomy.

Until the mid-1700s, biologists referred to a particular species by adding a series of descriptive terms to the name of the genus. These phrases, sometimes consisting of 12 or more Latin words, were called polynomials (from poly, meaning "many" and nomen, meaning "name"). Polynomials became quite unwieldy and awkward. Polynomials were sometimes altered by various biologists so that a give organism rarely had a universal name. A simplified system for naming organisms came from the work of the Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), whose ambition was to catalog all the known kinds of organisms. In the 1750s he published several books that employed the well established polynomial system. But as a kind of shorthand, Linnaeus included a two-word Latin name for each species. For example, the European honeybee became Apis mellifera. Linnaeu’s system for naming organisms is called binomial nomenclature.

For nearly 250 years, Linnaeu’s binomial nomenclature has remained the standard way of identifying a species. The unique two-word name for a species is its scientific name. The first word in a scientific name is the genus to which the organism belongs. An organism is assigned to a genus based on its major characteristics. For example, oak trees, all of which produce acorns, are placed in the genus Quercus. The second word in a scientific name identifies one particular kind of organism within the genus.

As you can see, when you write a scientific name, the first letter of the genus name is always capitalized and the first letter of the second word is always lowercased. As with all foreign words, scientific names are italicized or underlined. The scientific name of an organism is the same throughout the world, providing a standard for communication among biologists, regardless of their native language. This system of classification is a great improvement over the use of common names, which often vary from place to place. Common names often differ from place to place. A "robin" in Great Britain is Erithacus rubicula, but in North America it is Turdus migratorius.

Linnaeus worked out a fairly extensive system of classification for both plants and animals, emphasizing an organism’s form and structure as the basis for arranging specimens in a collection. Subsequently, the genera and species that he described were organized into a hierarchical system of groups that increase in inclusiveness. The different groups into which organisms are classified have expanded since Linnaeu’s time and now consist of seven levels. Genera with similar properties are clustered into a family. Similar families are combined into an order. Orders with common properties are united in a class. Classes with similar characteristics are assigned to a phylum. Finally, similar phyla are collected into a kingdom. The term division is an alternative term for phylum in the classification of bacteria, fungi, and plants. Living things have six kingdoms- Archeabacteria, Eubacteria, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animilia. The seven-level hierarchy can be subdivided into more specific categories, such as superclass, subclass, superorder, and suborder. In all, more than 30 taxonomic levels are recognized Each category at each level is based on the characteristics the animal contains.

Linnaeu’s classification system was based on the fact that organisms exhibit different degrees of similarity. For instance, tigers resemble gorillas more closely than they resemble lampreys. According to Darwin’s views, organisms that are similar descended from a common ancestor; therefore, classification provided strong evidence supporting evolution. However, making evolutionary connections based on similar traits can be misleading because not all traits are inherited from a common ancestor. Consider the wings of a bird and the wings of an insect. Both equip the respective organism for flight, but the two kinds of wings are built differently and evolved independently of each other. Similar traits such as the wings are the result of convergent evolution. In convergent evolution, organisms evolve similar features independently, often because they live in similar habitats. Similar features that evolved through convergent evolution are called analogous characters.

Biologists must be able to distinguish homologous traits from analogous ones in order to reconstruct evolutionary history. The evolutionary history of a species is called its phylogeny. How do taxonomists determine the phylogeny of a species? In general, this is determined by the overall similarity between the characteristics of different kinds of organisms. In one approach, called cladistics, biologists reconstruct a phylogeny in which relationships are inferred based on similarities derived from a common ancestor. Cladistics is used to determine the sequence in which different groups evolved. To do this, cladistics focuses on a set of unique characteristics found in a particular group of organisms. These unique characteristics are called derived traits. Using patterns of shared derived traits, a biologist using cladistics constructs a branching diagram called a cladogram, which shows the evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms. The key to cladistics is identifying morphological, physiological, or behavioral traits that differ among the organisms being studied and that can be attributed to a common ancestor.

In practice, a biologist constructing a cladogram is interested in studying the evolutionary relationships of certain groups of organisms, such as a species within a genus or genera within a family. Cladograms do not convey direct information about ancestors and descendants, showing who came from whom. Instead, cladograms convey comparative about relationships. Organisms that are grouped more closely on a cladogram share a more recent common ancestor than those farther apart. Because the analysis is comparative, a cladogram deliberately includes an organism that is only distantly related to the other organisms. This distantly related organisms is called an out-group. The out-group serves as a baseline for comparisons among the other organisms being evaluated, the in-group.

The great strength of a cladogram is its objectivity. A computer fed the data will generate exactly the same cladogram time and again. The great disadvantage of a cladogram is that it ignores too much information. It simply indicates that a character does or does not exist. A cladogram cannot take into account variation in the "strength" of a character, such as the size or location of a fin, the effectiveness of a lung, and so on. Each character is treated the same. Because evolutionary success depends so much on high-impact events, such as the evolution of feathers, cladograms sometimes fail to look at information of great potential importance. Thus, a cladogram of vertebrate evolution will group birds among the reptiles with crocodiles, accurately reflecting their true ancestry but ignoring the immense evolutionary impact of a derived character like feathers.

In order to avoid this pitfall, most practicing taxonomists attempt to weigh the evolutionary significance of the characters they study and to produce a more subjective analysis of evolutionary relationships. This approach, called evolutionary systematics, places birds in an entirely separate class from reptiles, giving extra weight to the characters like feathers that made powered flight possible. In evolutionary systematic, the full observational power and judgement of the biologist is brought to bear—along with any biases he or she may have.

In practice, evolutionary systematic is the approach of choice when a great deal of information about the organisms is available to consider. You cannot give a character due evolutionary weight without having enough information to make an accurate judgement. When little information is available about how a character affects the life of the organism, cladistics is the approach of choice.

3. Describe the hierarchical levels used in the classification of living things. Show how the following are classified under this system and explain why they belong to each level.

1. Humans

B. Bees

Linnaeus worked out a fairly extensive system of classification for both plants and animals, emphasizing an organism’s form and structure as the basis for arranging specimens in a collection. Subsequently, the genera and species that he described were organized into a hierarchical system of groups that increase in inclusiveness. The different groups into which organisms are classified have expanded since Linnaeu’s time and now consist of seven levels. Genera with similar properties are clustered into a family. Similar families are combined into an order. Orders with common properties are united in a class. Classes with similar characteristics are assigned to a phylum. Finally, similar phyla are collected into a kingdom. The term division is an alternative term for phylum in the classification of bacteria, fungi, and plants. Living things have six kingdoms- Archeabacteria, Eubacteria, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animilia. The seven-level hierarchy can be subdivided into more specific categories, such as superclass, subclass, superorder, and suborder. In all, more than 30 taxonomic levels are recognized.

A. Humans belong to the kingdom Animilia due to mobility and multi cellularity which they have in common with the bee. The phylum, next level, is Chordate for Humans which is due to the nerve core that humans have. The sub-phylum would be vertebrate due to the human spine. The class would be mammal because of live birth, warm boldness, hair, suckling young with milk, and two sets of teeth. These are unique to mammals. Next level is order, which would be primate. This is because you can hold hands, you have a thumb, and binocular vision. Next level is family, which would be Homidadae. Then there is genus like Homo or Austrilaphiticus family which are made up of different genuses. Finally there is species.

B. The honeybee has a scientific name, Apis mellifera, which indicates that it belongs to the genus Apis, which is classified in the family Apidae. All members of the family Apidae are bees that either live alone or in hives, as does A. mellifera. The order to which the honeybee belongs, Hymenoptera, includes ants, bees, and wasps, which usually have two pairs of wings and are likely to be able to sting. At the next level of classification, A. mellifera belongs to the class Insecta, meaning it is an insect with three major body segments and three pairs of legs. Its phylum, Arthrophoda, indicates that the honeybee is an arthropod, an organism with a hard cuticle of chitin and jointed appendages. Its kingdom, Animilia, tells you that A. mellifera is a multicellular heterotroph whose cells lack walls.