Biology Important Notes

LIVING WORLD

• Earnst Mayr has been called as ‘The Darwin of 20th century” He worked on Taxonomy, Zoogeography, Evolution, Systematics and History & Philosophy of biology. He gave the biological concept of species.
• The number of species that are known and described ranges between 1.7 -1.8 million
• ICBN -International Code of Botanical Nomenclature
• ICZN -International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
• Each biological name is made up of two components, generic name and specific epithet. This system is called as bionomial system.
• Biological names are generally in Latin and written in italics. They are latinised or derived from Latin irrespective to their origin.
• Both the words in a biological name, when handwritten, are separately underlined, or printed in italics to indicate their Latin origin.
• Classification is the process by which anything is grouped into convenient categories based on some easily observable characters.
• The group included in taxonomic categories is called as taxon.
• Characterisation’, identification, nomenclature and classification are the processes that are basic to taxonomy.
• Category is a part of overall taxonomic arrangement and all categories together constitute the taxonomic hierarchy.
• As we go higher from species to kingdom the number of common characteristics goes on decreasing,
• Herbarium is a store house of collected plant specimens that are dried, pressed and preserved on sheets.
• Keys: The keys are based on the contrasting characters generally in a pair called couplet. Each statement in the key is called a lead.
• Keys are generally analytical in nature.
• Flora: It contains the actual account of habitat and distribution of plants of a given area. These provide the index to the plant species found in a particular area.
• Monograph: It contains complete informations on anyone taxon