Variation

in Species
★ Define species and the rules
in naming species
★ Compare in the species in
the diagram.
MATERIAL
S
Coursebook
pages 54-55
1. What similarities can you see
between the two species of
ground squirrels in the
photographs?
2. What differences can you see
between the two species of
ground squirrels?
Observe how dogs
and daisy flowers
share same
characteristics
 Observe how dogs and
daisy flowers share same
characteristics

These are Ox-eye daisy

flowers

Domestic dogs all belong to the same species

We have seen that organisms that share the same
characteristics, and that can breed with one another, are
classified in the same species.

But the members of a species are not all exactly

the same. There are always differences between
individuals. Differences between individual
members of a species are called variation
Questions

1. a. Make a list of five kinds of variation that you can see between the
dogs in the photograph above.
b. Suggest why scientists classify all domestic dogs in the same
species, even though the different breeds of dog show so much
variation.

2. The flowers in the picture above all come from the same species of
daisy plant.
a. What characteristics do all of the flowers share?
b. Make a list of ways in which these flowers show variation.
Do it in padlet Link of padlet
If we count up the number of individuals with each version of a variable
feature, we can display the results as a frequency diagram

A species of plant called kidney vetch has flowers that show variation in
colour.

A student counted the number of plants with each colour of flower growing
in a small area of a field. She recorded her result like this:
 For each plant that she found, she put a stroke I in the correct
column on the tally row. When she had recorded the flower
colour of each plant, she added up all the tally strokes and wrote
the number in the last row.
Then she used her results
to draw a frequency
diagram, like the one on
the right.
 Questions

3. How many plants did the student find?

4. Which was the most common flower colour?
5. The student recorded her results in a results table, and
then in a frequency diagram. Which of these do you
think shows the results more clearly? Explain your
answer.
 SUMMAR
Y

★ Differences between organisms belonging to

the same species are called variation
★ We can show the pattern of variation in a
group of organisms using a frequency
diagram.