Question

How is a key helpful in the identification and classification of an organism?

Answer 1

Hello!!

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✔️ Key is a taxonomical aid that helps in identification of plant and animal species.

✔️ These keys are based on similarities and dissimilarities in characters, generally in a pair called couplet.

✔️ Each statement in a taxonomic key is referred to as a lead.

✔️ For categorizing each taxonomic rank, such as family, genus, species, etc., different keys are used. It is also useful in identification of unknown organisms.

✔️ Keys are of two types- indented and bracketed keys.

✔️ Indented key provides a sequence of choices between two or more statements while in bracketed key, a pair of contrasting characters are used.

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Thanks!!

Answer 2

Key is beneficial in identifying as well as classifying by :

i) It falls under the taxonomical aids where the organisms are identified by pointing out similarities and dissimilarities among them.

ii) This type of taxonomic aid termed as key are specified on contradicting features. These features are available in pairs which is called couplet.

iii) Per statement which are present in the key are termed as lead.

iv) These type of taxonomic aid in general are of analytical type.