BIOL 212 Lab Exercise: Classification Name_______________________________________

1. One way to classify living organisms is through the use of traditional (Linnean) taxonomy. Read about it in your
textbook in Ch. 1 and/or in the link in “Supplemental Information”. List the primary taxonomic ranks in order
below beginning with “Kingdom”.

2. Another way to classify living organisms is through cladistics. What is the definition of a clade?

3. Cladistics and Linnean taxonomy are separate classification systems, each with their own limitations. However,
they have areas of overlap. For example, “ranked” clades have a corresponding taxonomic rank (e.g. kingdom,
phylum, sub-phylum, class, etc.). Note that not all clades have a corresponding rank! These are called “unranked”
clades. Some ranked groups are not clades; in these cases, new information has led us to believe that some
groups traditionally classified together are not monophyletic. Use the Tree of Life website (TOLweb, see link in
“Supplemental Information”), your textbook, or other resources to fill in the blanks in the table below.

Is it a clade according Is the clade (or group) ranked?

Name of group
to TOLweb? (if yes, give the rank)
a Bilateria

Brachiopoda
b
(within Bilateria > Lophotrochozoa)
Phylum
c
(use an animal example only)
Mammalia
d
(within the jawed, 4-legged vertebrates)
Class
e
(use an animal example only)

4. Study the BioSkills 3 unit on your textbook (“Reading a phylogenetic tree”). Monophyletic groups are clades, and
pass the “one-snip test”. Polyphyletic groups are not clades; they do not include the last common ancestor of the
members. Paraphyletic groups are not clades; they exclude one or more descendent groups. Using the diagrams
below, circle examples of a monophyletic group, a paraphyletic group, and a polyphyletic group.

Monophyletic group Polyphyletic group Paraphyletic group

5. Given the data below & the provided handout on cladograms, construct a plausible phylogenetic tree of the
animal groups listed and draw it in the space provided.
Organism Characters
Crocodile Jaws, backbone, four limbs, amniotic egg
Dog Four limbs, backbone, jaws, hair, amniotic egg
Lamprey Backbone
Newt Backbone, jaws, four limbs
Shark Jaws, backbone
6. Use the Tree of Life website (see link in “Supplemental Information”) to answer the following questions:

What is the most basal animal phylum

(branches directly from the most basal node)?

What is the name of the clade containing both

humans and sea stars, but not spiders?

Which are more closely related: roundworms

and earthworms, or roundworms and insects?

What is the name of the clade containing all

vertebrates with jaws?

According to the site, is the phylum Porifera

monophyletic? Explain your answer

7. Consider the cladogram below. You may want to compare it to the phylogeny of major animal phyla in Ch. 32 of
your textbook.
a. Circle the clade that represents Phylum Mollusca.
b. Circle the clade that represents Phylum Chordata.
c. Circle the node on the cladogram that represents the most recent common ancestor of squid and humans.
d. What physical characteristics do you think the animals in c had? For example, did they look like a
squid/human hybrid? Did they have internal skeletons, limbs, complete guts, etc.?
e. In Linnean taxonomy, each organism is placed into ONE phylum, ONE class, ONE order, etc. Circle the
portion of the cladogram that would represent the phylum into which you would place the most recent
common ancestor of squid and humans.

8. Consider your answer to question #7. Why does the use of Linnean taxonomy to classify ancestral organisms like
the one above automatically lead to the formation of paraphyletic groups?