Unit.1, Characteristics and classification of living things Assignment

ASSIGNMENT - 1 Paper 4 (Theory) IGCSE BIOLOGY (0610)
Topic: Unit.1, Characteristics & classification of living organisms


Name: ………………………………………….
Grade: ………………..
Past Paper Questions Total: 50 Marks


1. Fig. 1.1 is a diagram of a virus.




Fig. 1.1
Identify the parts of the virus labelled N and O.
N ............................................................................................................................................
O ........................................................................................................................................ [2]


2. The classification of giant pandas, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, is debated by many
scientists. Fig. 2.1 shows a giant panda eating bamboo plants.




Fig. 2.1
1

, Fig. 2.2 shows a red panda, Ailurus fulgens, and a polar bear, Ursus maritimus.




Fig. 2.2
(b) (i) State two features, visible in Fig. 2.1 and Fig. 2.2, that identify the three animals as
all belonging to the same vertebrate group.
1 ........................................................................................................................................
2 ........................................................................................................................................ [2]


(ii) DNA can also be used to classify species. Molecular biologists compared the DNA base
sequences of eight species from the same vertebrate group. They used the differences to
draw a classification diagram.
Fig. 2.3 shows the classification diagram for these eight species. The shorter the horizontal
distance from two species to the branching point that they share, the more similar their
DNA sequences are and the more closely the two species are related.
The scale on Fig. 2.3 shows the time at which the molecular biologists estimate that each
branching point occurred.




Fig. 2.3
2