13 Jan Complete your answers in the sp

Complete your answers in the spaces provided. Remember to add your last name and first initial
to the file name prior to saving and submitting your completed assignment through Canvas.
Background:
All knowledge is sorted and organized so that new discoveries can be recognized as something
new that has never been seen and understood before. This organization of knowledge pervades
all different content. This is not something new that we in the modern era have developed. Carl
Linneaus (1707-1778) came up with the basis of the modern system of classification of all living
organisms. His taxonomic system is based on grouping organisms by their similarities. The
more similar organisms are to one another the more closely they will be in taxonomic
classification. The most specific level of his classification is the species.
The most general level of classification is the Domain and progressing in specificity is
Kingdom, Class, Order, Family, Phylum, Genus, Species. Believe it or not, classification is one
of the most contentious specialties in biology. The more organisms whose DNA is sequenced
the more things change as genetic sequence similarities are used to group organisms together as
opposed to grouping them by structural and functional similarities. Currently there are several
classification schemes with varying numbers of Kingdoms.
The most specific level of classification is that of the species. At the species level, all organisms
of the same species must be able to mate with one another and produce viable offspring – that is
offspring who themselves can mate and produce viable offspring. When you mate a horse and
donkey their offspring is a mule. But you cannot mate two mules with one another – mules are
sterile. This means that horses and donkeys are each a unique species.
Moving up in the hierarchy towards Domain the organisms are less and less alike one another.
In current taxonomic classification, we have three Domains. Dr. Carl Woese studied the rRNA
sequences and structures of organisms and found there were three distinct types of rRNA. The
Domains are distinguished from one another by this difference. The three domains are Archaea ,
Eubacteria and Eukaryotes. While both the Archaea and Eubacteria are prokaryotic organisms
without their DNA enclosed by a membrane bound nucleus they are still separated from one
another by the difference in their rRNA sequences and structures. The third Domain is the
Eukaryotes whose members all have their DNA sequestered from the rest of their cells by a
nuclear membrane. Eukaryotes also have other membrane bound organelles.
As you move down from the Domain level to the Species level, the characteristics become
increasingly more specific. The focus of this lab is on the three Domains (Eubacteria, Archaea,
and Eukaryota) and four of the Kingdoms in the Eukaryotic Domain: Protista, Plantae, Fungi,
and Animalia. Page 1 of 7 Depending on
the classification