Practice: Classification using Dichotomous Keys Uh oh! Little Sammy's babysitter forgot to check for monsters under his bed when
1 answer:
A dichotoums key uses morphological and molecular traits to classify organisms into different taxonomic groups.
<h3>What is a dichotomous key?</h3>A dichotomous key might be considered a useful tool to classify organisms. The key provides an easy and fast way for identification by describing different morphological and molecular traits, leading you to the correct taxonomic classification.
It is simple to read a dichotomous key. The term dichotomous refers to how information is provided. You will always have <u>two options</u> (a and b, or 1 and 2), and you will have to choose one of them according to the characteristics of your organism. The key describes specific morphological oir molecular traits of organisms and you need to choose between the options which ones matches the ones of your organism.
Probably you might need an atlas or a dictionary to understand some of the technical terminologies. You will also need to carefully observe your specimen, to get to distinguish different traits. If the specimen is too small you might need a loup.
Since I do not have your dichotomous key, we are going to analyze a simple example using a group of 5 organisms. We will make the classification according to the description (organisms in the attached files).
<u>Dichotomous key</u>
Statement 1a ----------- The organism is a vertebrate ----------- Frog
Statement 1b------------ The organism is invertebrate ----------- Go to 2
Statement 2a ---------- The organism has a multisegmented
and elongated body, with too many ----- centipede
legs.
Statement 2b ---------- The organism has a relatively short body
and with fewer legs ------------------------------ Go to 3
Statement 3a ----------- The organism has 8 legs ----------------------- Spider
Statement 3b ----------- The organism has 6 legs ----------------------- Ant
As you can see, this a very simple example, but ilustrates how the key provides enough information for you to reah the correct option.
So in your example, your dichotomous key will probably provide you information about different traits such as body-color, number of extremities, hair, and other, and you will have to observe the all your individuals and choose which trait matches each of them.
You will learn more about dichotomous key at
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