Diversity of Life Webquest Biology

Diversity of Life Name: Olivia King

Travel to The Tree of Life web page: http://www.amnh.org/ology/features/treeoflife/

Read the description on the homepage, and then describe what a cladogram is and what it is similar to.

Cladograms are like family trees of the earth, they show how things are related. Its similar to a family tree because it shows the trees ancestors and how there related. Cladgram shows the relationships among all the organisms.

Click on the “explore the tree of life cladogram” tab, and then click the “how to read a cladogram” tab. Read through the example cladogram and what each “dot” branch of the fruit cladogram represents. When making a cladogram, what does a branch in a cladogram represent?

A branch in a cladogram represents similarities and characteristics that they have alike. It a way of breaking them down and grouping them to there likenesses.

We will discuss cladograms and how to build them more in class next time, so for now…

Click on “see how to read” a cladogram for the Tree Of Life. Once there, answer the following questions:

What do all living things on the Tree of Life have in common?

All living things, DNA, Cells

3. Which groups of organisms all have backbones (vertebrate)?

Eucaryotes are organisms that have backbones for example ray finned fish are under this dot because there are vertebrates.

Return to the Tree of Life Cladogram (hit back button twice), then you will begin to explore the diverse groups found on the Tree of life. Complete the Table of Life below. Begin by clicking on “True Bacteria”.

Group | Characteristics | Number of Known Species | Where they are Found | Example(s) |

True Bacteria | Microscopic, single celled, lack membrane, bounded nucleus within their cells. | 4,000 to 9,000 possibly 1 million | All environments even inside some organisms | Nodularia sp., Salmonella enteriditis |

Protoctists | Diverse, ranging from single...