The Living World – Diversity in Living World: NEET MCQs with Answers

Explanation: Modern classification is based mainly on external and internal (anatomical) structures together with cell structure, developmental processes, physiological traits and ecological information about organisms. Morphological resemblance alone is the basis of the older artificial systems, while notochord and breeding habits are far too restricted to serve as general criteria.

Explanation: Binomial nomenclature is the biological system in which one scientific name for an organism is composed of two components — the generic name followed by the specific epithet. It does not mean two separate names for the same organism, nor a name coined jointly by two scientists.

Explanation: Carolus Linnaeus is famous for introducing binomial nomenclature, the scientific system of naming living organisms. The theory of biogenesis is associated with Louis Pasteur, the microscope with Antony van Leeuwenhoek and Zacharias Janssen, and blood circulation with William Harvey.

Explanation: Carolus Linnaeus proposed binomial nomenclature and used it consistently in his works Species Plantarum (1753) and Systema Naturae, thereby establishing the modern scientific system of naming organisms.

Explanation: In binomial nomenclature the first component is the generic name (genus) and the second is the specific epithet, which together give every organism one standard name recognised worldwide — for example, Mangifera indica.

Explanation: Julian Huxley coined the term "New Systematics" in 1940. It takes into account plant identification and grouping based on information collected from many branches of science — cytology, genetics, ecology and biochemistry — rather than morphology alone; it is also called biosystematics or neo-systematics.

Explanation: The immediate, practical value of classification is that it allows an unfamiliar organism to be identified by placing it in an existing group whose characteristics are already known. Understanding evolutionary relationships and origin is a theoretical outcome of classification, while naming is the task of nomenclature rather than of classification itself.

Explanation: Biosystematics aims to classify organisms on the basis of their evolutionary history and to establish phylogeny, using evidence from all fields such as morphology, anatomy, cytology, embryology, biochemistry, ecology and genetics. Classification based on morphology alone or cytology alone, or mere delimitation of taxa, is narrower taxonomy.

Explanation: ICBN is the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature — the set of rules and recommendations governing the formal scientific naming of plants. The corresponding code for animals is the ICZN (International Code of Zoological Nomenclature).

Explanation: Plasmodium falciparum is correctly written, correctly italicised and correctly described as the protozoan causing malignant (cerebral) malaria. Musca domestica is the housefly, not a lizard; the Indian tiger is Panthera tigris and Gir forest protects the lion; and the full name of E. coli is Escherichia coli, not Entamoeba.

Explanation: Statement I is correct — Ernst Mayr defined a species as a group of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated. Statement IV is correct because in unicellular organisms such as Amoeba and bacteria, cell division produces new individuals, so growth and reproduction are synonymous. Statement II is wrong, since photoperiod (relative length of day and night) regulates flowering and hence reproduction in plants; statement III is wrong because binomial nomenclature was given by Carolus Linnaeus, not Whittaker.

Explanation: Biological names are derived from Latin (irrespective of their origin) and are printed in italics, precisely so that they remain universal and are not written in different regional languages. The remaining statements — genus followed by specific epithet, italicisation, and separate underlining of each word when handwritten — are all correct ICBN rules.

Explanation: The universal rule of nomenclature is that the first word (genus) begins with a capital letter while the second word (specific epithet) begins with a small letter — for example, Mangifera indica. Writing both with small initials is therefore against the ICBN. The other three statements are all valid rules of botanical nomenclature.

Explanation: In a scientific name the genus begins with a capital letter, the specific epithet with a small letter, and the author's name is written after the epithet in abbreviated form, giving Mangifera indica Linn. A name without the author citation is incomplete, capitalising the specific epithet is wrong, and 'Car. Linn.' is not the standard abbreviation.

Explanation: The great one-horned Indian rhinoceros is native to Assam (e.g., Kaziranga National Park).