What decides a group
A seed from a thorny plant grows its own thorns. Does a bite mark pass on too?
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The rule
No. A bite mark is made during one plant's life. It is not passed to the seed.
Offspring are the young of a living thing. An ancestor is an earlier living thing that later ones come from.
Inherited — a feature passed from parent to offspring. A feature that appears only in one life is not.
Inherited features pass on. So groups built on them stay steady in each generation. Living things that share many inherited features may share a common ancestor.
Step 1 of 4
- A thorny plant, and its seed.
- The seed grows into a plant. It has thorns too.
- A goat nibbles a leaf on a different plant.
- That plant's own seed grows with a whole leaf.
Features scientists use
DNA is the set of instructions in a living thing's cells.
| Kind of feature | Example |
|---|---|
| How it moves | Swims, walks or flies |
| Body plan | Wings, fins or legs |
| What is inside | A backbone, or none |
| Its cells | One cell or many |
| Its DNA | How alike the inherited instructions are |