Video Transcript
The following is a list of mammals
and some of their key features. (a) A domestic sheep, with two toes
on its feet. (b) A capybara, with clawed
toes. (c) A gibbon, with opposable
thumbs. (d) A zebra, with a single toe
covered by a hoof. (e) A rhino, with three toes on its
feet. State the letters corresponding to
the two mammals that belong to the same order.
To answer this question, let’s
first refresh our memories on what we know about classification. Mammals are organisms that belong
to the class Mammalia, which is a large and diverse class. So the organisms that belong to it
can be further divided into orders to group together animals that share some
specific features.
This question asks us to group
animals that have similar features and then gives us information about the animals’
digits or fingers and toes. Let’s look at each animal in
turn. There is only one order where the
animals that belong to it have opposable thumbs, and this is the order Primates. So this must be the order that
gibbons belong to. The rest of the descriptions talk
about the animals’ toes. Let’s have a look at the footprints
of each.
A capybara has clawed toes. Although this isn’t enough to
classify it on its own, when we combine this with the capybara’s long chisel-shaped
teeth, we can classify it into the order Rodentia. Domestic sheep are classified into
the order Artiodactyla. This is because they have two toes
on their feet, and so they have an even number of toes. Odd-toed mammals belong to the
order Perissodactyla, and there are two on this list. Zebras have a single toe, and a
rhino has three toes. So both of these mammals would
belong to this order. Therefore, the two organisms that
belong to the same order are a zebra and a rhino, or (d) and (e).
