STEM_BIO11/1

LESSON 13: Biodiversity and Categories of Classification 2IIIhj-15

QUARTER 3 | S.Y. 2024-2025

Earth's Biodiversity - Therefore, they are uncertain how many

organisms truly live today. Most figures
range from 5 million species to 30 million.

Measures of Biodiversity

Figure 14.1. Mammals, birds and flowers are relatively new

organisms dating back 130 to 200 million years. Source:
[Link]

- Earth, seen from space, gives no clues as

to the variety of life forms that exist
there.
- Microorganisms that lived for billions of
years in the ocean before plants and
Figure 14.2.. (A) Five life kingdoms (B) Identified animal species (C) Identified
animals emerged are known to have plant species. Source: [Link]
been the first forms of life on Earth.
- Biologist have established three specific
- Organisms such as mammals, birds, and
measures of life’s variation
flowers that are so familiar to us are all
1. the genetic diversity or genetic
relatively new, dating back 130 to 200 variation
million years (Fig. 14.1). - within a population is the
- For only the last 2.5 million years, most reliable and precise indicator of
humans have populated this world, and biodiversity.
only in the last 200,000 years have - This diversity measure
humans begun to look like we do today. explores the variations between
individuals within a group, or the
differences between different
populations of the same species.
Biodiversity
2. Species diversity,
- which best suits the literal
- Biodiversity is the biological variety of translation of biodiversity, is just the
wider level: the number of different
living things on Earth.
species in a specific ecosystem or on
- It refers to all animals, plants, and
Earth.
microorganisms; the genes they contain
- This kind of diversity is only
and the environment they form on land looking at an environment and
and water. reporting what can be seen there.
- The genetic variations between them and 3. Ecosystem diversity,
the populations and communities in - the broadest, most
which they exist. encompassing level.
- About 1.9 million organisms alive today - The "cogs and wheels"
have been described and identified by involve not only life, but also the
scientists. ground, sea, and air that sustain life,
as Leopold clearly understood.
- They are classified into the six life
- Biologists look at the many
kingdoms depicted in Figure 14.2. There
forms of functional units created by
are still various living organisms yet to
living communities interacting with
discover. their environments in the diversity of
ecosystems.
-
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LESSON 13: Biodiversity and Categories of Classification 2IIIhj-15

QUARTER 3 | S.Y. 2024-2025

2. The Rank of the Taxon

- Biologists use the taxon within the hierarchy
- Even though all three levels of diversity are
to locate the organism's grouping.
significant, the term biodiversity typically
- For example, the taxon “Chordate” is
refers to species diversity.
assigned the rank of phylum. The taxon
“Pongidae” is assigned the taxonomic rank of
Categories of Classification family.
- However, a taxon’s rank is not always similar
across all resources.
- Having very diverse forms of life on earth, - For instance, some publications report
classifying is undoubtedly a meticulous task. “Zygomycota, Ascomycota, and
- It does not only involve one single step but a Basidiomycota as subphyla within phylum
method of organized series of sequential Mycota, whereas others assign each of those
steps, in which taxa show a category. three taxa the rank of phylum within
- To classify specific organisms, scientists use Kingdom Fungi (Krempels and Lee, 2013).
the similarities or differences among species. - This means that taxonomic classifications
- Sometimes these distinguishing features of may change over time as new data become
species are quite easy to identify life the available.
presence of scales, feathers and horns, - Bear in mind that the relative rank of a taxon
number of legs, food requirements and within its classification is more important
environmental niche. than the relative rank itself.
- But nowadays, seeing the differences can - For example, it is important to know that all
also require special laboratory component members of the larger taxon Carnivora are
when looking at the DNA of a species. classified within the still larger Mammalia.
- Therefore, the author using this classification
system will simply write Mammalia rather
Taxon than Class Mammalia to avoid confusion as
names change their rank (Krempels and Lee,
2013).
- A taxon is a group of one or more
populations of an organism seen to form a
unit.
3. The Contest of a Taxon
- A taxon is usually recognized using a
- This is the key aspect of the taxon, which
particular name and ranking, especially when
uses groupings of specific individuals within
it is accepted or becomes established.
a single species, related species within a
- Generally, a taxon has three facets:
single genus, related genera, and so on.
- This tells us which of the organisms have a
common ancestry (Krempels and Lee, 2013).
1. The Name of the Taxon - Systematists use a range of techniques to
- The scientific name of a group is the most classify organisms,
important ‘character’ used to describe a o which include morphological
group of similar items. characters,
- Once a Latin or Greek root is assigned, o DNA sequencing,
complicated names derived from other o protein analysis,
languages become simple and easier to o developmental biology,
associate back to the species (Krempels and o karyology,
Lee, 2013). o ultrastructure,
- For example, the name of the Tragulus o and other information to
nigricans, an endemic mouse deer in the determine evolutionary relationships
Philippines, locally known as Pilandok, can be (Krempels and Lee, 2013).
broken down into its Latin origins: Tragulus, - This scientific field needs more of the few
which means “little goat,” and nigricans, generations of scientists to go on a quest to
which means “black,” referring to the dark name known and unknown species.
coloration of this species.
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LESSON 13: Biodiversity and Categories of Classification 2IIIhj-15

QUARTER 3 | S.Y. 2024-2025

- However, there are problems with this

concept in asexual as well as in sexual
Concept of Species reproduction.
- In asexual reproduction, in which there is no
or little gene exchange, each clone with a
- Species concepts do not only define what a
mutation would be classified as a separate
species is; but by defining what a species is,
species (Coyne and Orr, 2004).
they also define what speciation really is.
- For the past centuries, different biological
disciplines created different concepts about
the word “species.” 4. Genotypic Cluster Species Concept
- Species concepts are neither right nor - Just as the phylogenetic species concept, this
wrong. concept in principle is applicable for asexual
- In principle, almost every species concept is organisms as well since it defines species as
usable. a genotypic cluster that can overlap without
fusing with its sibling.
- However, acceptance of the genotypic
Pattern-Based Definitions cluster definition would result in undesirable
consequences where each genetically
different clone would be identified as a
1. The Darwinian Definition (Darwin, separate species (Mallet, 1995).
1859)
- A simple definition during the time of Darwin
was created,
- which simply noted that a species is a term
“arbitrarily given for the sake of convenience
to a set of individuals closely resembling
each other, and
- that it does not essentially differ from the
term variety, which is given to less distinct
and more fluctuating forms.”

2. Morphological/Phenetic Species
Concept
- A more clarifying definition was presented in
1978 wherein a species is the smallest group
that is consistently and persistently distinct
and distinguishable by ordinary means
(Cronquist 1978).
- So basically, the main criterion of this
definition is that for as long as there is a clear
morphological distinction from another
group, it is a separate species.
- However, the problem with this definition is
that it cannot address cryptomorphic
species, which are morphologically similar-
looking species but are genetically unrelated
(Brickford et al., 2007).

3. Phylogenetic Species Concept

- This concept has also been recommended for
prokaryotes (Staley, 2006) and has recently
been referred to in several DNA barcoding
and DNA taxonomy studies.