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Patterns in Life: Diversity and Classification: questions with answers

Class 9 Science, Chapter 12 (NCERT). 8 questions by concept. Open “Show answer” for the answer and why.

How to teach this chapter · Common misconceptions & worked visual for this chapter

Biodiversity, evolution, and the need for classification

Question 1

Why do biologists classify organisms?

  1. (a)To sort organisms by one visible feature, such as colour
  2. (b)To count how many species live in a place
  3. (c)To organise diversity and understand relationships among organisms
  4. (d)To rank organisms on a ladder from simple to perfect
Show answer

(c) To organise diversity and understand relationships among organisms

Classification organises the variety of living things into groups using shared characteristics. These groups help identify organisms and understand their relationships, including common ancestry.

Question 2

What is the most reliable basis for classifying animals?

  1. (a)Several basic features of body structure and cells
  2. (b)Rank on a ladder from simple to perfect
  3. (c)The place where each animal is found
  4. (d)One visible feature, such as body colour
Show answer

(a) Several basic features of body structure and cells

Animals that are not closely related may share a colour or habitat. Members of one group may differ in colour. Comparing several basic features of body structure and cells gives stronger evidence of relationships. Classification does not rank animals from simple to perfect.

Five-kingdom classification

Question 3

A unicellular organism lacks a membrane-bound nucleus. Which kingdom best fits?

  1. (a)Fungi are autotrophic plants
  2. (b)Monera
  3. (c)Animal cells have cellulose walls
  4. (d)Monera are eukaryotic
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(b) Monera

Prokaryotic cellular organisation is the defining clue.

Question 4

A multicellular organism absorbs food from dead matter and has cell walls but no chlorophyll. Which kingdom does it belong to?

  1. (a)Monera
  2. (b)Fungi
  3. (c)Animalia
  4. (d)Plantae
Show answer

(b) Fungi

The organism belongs to Fungi. Fungi have cell walls, lack chlorophyll and absorb food from other sources, including dead matter. Animal cells lack cell walls.

Classification hierarchy and binomial nomenclature

Question 5

Which of these ranks is the narrowest: family, class, genus or order?

  1. (a)Class
  2. (b)Genus
  3. (c)Order
  4. (d)Family
Show answer

(b) Genus

From broad to narrow these ranks run class, order, family, genus. A genus sits inside a family, so it holds fewer and more closely related organisms than any of the other three.

Question 6

Which rule for printing a scientific name is correct?

  1. (a)A scientific species name has one word
  2. (b)Both words in a binomial are capitalised
  3. (c)Species is the broadest rank
  4. (d)Capitalise the genus name, use lowercase for the specific name, and print both words in italics.
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(d) Capitalise the genus name, use lowercase for the specific name, and print both words in italics.

The two-word convention communicates genus and species consistently worldwide.

Fossils, adaptation, and biodiversity under threat

Question 7

Fossils are the remains or traces of organisms preserved in rock layers, and deeper layers are older than upper layers. What do fossils provide evidence of?

  1. (a)Extinctions that left the rest of the ecosystem unchanged
  2. (b)A complete record of every organism that ever lived
  3. (c)Body changes that individuals chose to make when needed
  4. (d)Changes in body form over long spans of time
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(d) Changes in body form over long spans of time

Fossils from older layers differ from those in newer layers, and these differences line up with the body forms of living groups. The record is incomplete, yet the part we have is ordered evidence of change over long spans of time.

Question 8

When a habitat is destroyed and one species dies out, what happens to the other species that lived there?

  1. (a)Each one chooses a new adaptation at once.
  2. (b)Nothing changes for them.
  3. (c)Their numbers rise.
  4. (d)They lose food, shelter and breeding places.
Show answer

(d) They lose food, shelter and breeding places.

A habitat gives its species food, shelter and breeding places, and many species also feed on one another. When the habitat goes, the species left behind lose these too, so more of them decline.

Common misconception in Patterns in Life: Diversity and Classification

Open full misconception guide →

Does a similar habitat mean close classification?

Wrong

A dolphin and a shark belong to the same group because both swim.

Why it feels right. Shape and habitat are easy features to see.

Right

Classification uses traits that help identify biological relationships.

Worked example

Dolphin
Streamlined swimmer→Lungs and milk→Mammal
Shark
Streamlined swimmer→Gills→Fish
Similar swimming shapes coexist with different breathing and feeding traits.
  1. A dolphin breathes with lungs and nurses its young.
  2. A shark uses gills.
  3. Similar swimming shapes coexist with different group traits.