Q & A on living world and taxonomy

Q1. Who is known as the Darwin of the 20th century
Ernst Mayr(1940) – During the mid 20th century, Ernst Mayr was one of the ‘architects’ of the synthetic theory of evolution. He proposed Biological concept of species, on the basis of interbreeding

Q2. In unicellular organisms the ……………. is synonymous with growth.
In unicellular organisms like bacteria, amoeba and fungi reproduction of synonymous with growth. Growth is an increase in the size of organism and reproduction is giving rise to daughter organisms

Q3. The sum of all chemical reactions occurring in our body is called .……..
All living organisms are constantly making or breaking biomolecules. Such conversions are due to chemical reactions, and sum total of all such chemical reactions, occurring in the body is called metabolism. The metabolic reactions can be anabolic (constructive) or catabolic (destructive).

Q4. who is the only organism that is aware of oneself?
Human is the only organism who is aware of himself also, and thus has ‘self-consciousness’ Such selfconsciousness is lacking in patients who are lying in ‘coma’ and are brain-dead.

Q5. The number of species that are known and described ranges between ……
The number of species that are known and described range between 1.7-1.8 million. This refers to biodiversity or the number and types of organisms present on earth.

Q6. ……………. occurs in both living and non-living, but in living it is from inside
the non-livings, like mountains, sand mounds and snow also grow, if we consider the increase in body mass as a criterion, but this growth is by the accumulation of material on the surface, and not from inside as we see in animals.

Q7. The poikilotherms are also known as ………….. animals.
At low temperature in the surrounding, body temperature is also dropped and they become cold. Such animals are called as Cold-blooded animals or Poikilotherms.

Q8. Tuna fish, though cold-blooded, is ……………..
Tuna fish and Swordfish, have insulating devices to prevent heat loss. They retain heat energy in the body. Such fihes, unlike others, are endotherms.

Q9. A group of interbreeding individuals is called ……….…
Earnest Meyr gave the most accepted biological concept of species which defines species as a group of actually or potentially interbreeding population that are reproductively isolated from other such groups.

Q10. ……………. is known as the father of zoology.
Aristotle is known as the father of zoology.

Q11. What is the basic unit of classification?
Species is the basic unit of classification. Species are a group of organisms that are morphologically similar and can interbreed

Q12. Who coined the term Phylum?
The term phylum was coined in 1866 by Ernst Haeckel from the Greek phylon (“race, stock”), related to phyle (“tribe, clan”).

Q13. Who introduced 5-kingdom classification. Can you name 5-kingdoms?
Whittaker proposed an elaborate five-kingdom classification – Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia.

Q14. Name the taxon above kingdom level.
A domain is the highest (most general) rank of organisms above the kingdom.

Q15. Who wrote Historia Plantarum?
Theophrastus classified plants into Trees, Shrubs, Under- Shrubs and Herbs, and also described around 500 plants in his book Historia plantarum.

Q16. Who is the father of Taxonomy?
Carrolus Linnaeus is the father of taxonomy.

Q17. For which organisms the Biological concept of species cannot be applied.
The biological species concept is not applicable to fossils or asexually reproducing organisms, as they cannot interbreed

Q18. What is holotype?
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype.

Q19. In Bracketed key ……………. pairs of contrasting characters are used.
It has one pair of contrasting statements for identification. Each statement in the key is called a lead. The numbers given on the right-hand side indicate the next choice of paired contrasting statements.

Q20. ……………. on Pheretima posthuma was written by Dr K. N. Behl
Dr K.N. Behl wrote a memoir on the earthworm to describe its all structure and function.

Q21. What is Indented key?
The indented key provides a sequence of choices between two or more characters. The user has to make the correct choice of statement or character for identification, It also known as Yoked key.

Q22. In place of phylum, what is used, in plants?

Traditionally, in botany, the term division has been used instead of phylum, although the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants accepts the terms as equivalent.

Q23. What is taxon?

The term ‘Taxon’ is used to refer to any rank or level or category of the classification

Q24. Branch of Zoology dealing with the study of the behaviour of animals is ………

Branch of Zoology dealing with the study of the behaviour of animals is ethology