Question

‘‘Evolution and classification of organisms are interlinked.’’ Give reasons to justify this statement.​

Answer 1

Classification is the grouping of organisms based on their similarities and differences in characteristics. The more characteristics two species/organisms have in common, the more closely they are related. And the more closely they are related, the more recently they will have had a common ancestor.

For example, a girl and her brother are related. They share a common ancestor in the first generation. i.e., their parents. A girl and her cousin brother are also related, but not as much as she is related to her brother. She and her cousin brother share a common ancestor in the second generation, namely, their grandparents.

This shows us the fact that evolution and classification of organisms are interlinked.

Answer 2

The more characteristics two species have in common the more closely they are related

• For this we can build up small groups of species with recent common ancestor
• The more closely they are related the more related they are
• We can then build super groups with distant common ancestors
• If we keep going backwards we will reach a non living material that has given life.
• Therefore we can say that evolution and classification of organisms are interlinked