Question

How many of the following are taxa?
Dogs, Cats, Mammals, Wheat, Rice, Plants, Wood, mango, leaves, jointed legs.
A. Eight
B. Six
C. Seven
D. One

Answer 1

Hint: Taxon is the unit used for biological classification. It is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms. Basic unit of the taxonomy is the species.

Complete Answer:
To solve this question, we must know about taxa and its significance.
- Taxa are arranged in hierarchical order from kingdom to species. It is a particular name given to a definite rank.
- Taxa can be defined as a population or group of organisms that are phylogenetically related and have common characters which differentiate the species from other species.
- The hierarchy is as follows- Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species.
- Kingdom is the highest taxonomic rank. The living beings are divided into 5 kingdoms.
- Species is the basic unit of classification. They are closely related organisms belonging to a single genus.
- According to the question, Dogs, Cats, Mammals, Wheat, Rice, Plants, Wood, mango, leaves, jointed legs consists of both living beings/species and parts of living things like wood, jointed legs, leaves.

The taxa of the following are-
1. Dogs- Its taxonomic rank is species.
2. Cats- Its taxonomic rank is species.
3. Mammal- Its taxonomic rank is Phylum.
4. Wheat- Its taxonomic rank is species.
5. Rice- Its taxonomic rank is species.
6. Plants- Its taxonomic rank is Kingdom.
7. Mango- Its taxonomic rank is species.

The correct answer is (C).

Note: Phylogenetic relationship between the organisms refers to the ancestral relationship having similar ancestors. The organisms which look similar can have distant ancestry and those look dissimilar may be closely related.