Home / IB DP Biology- A3.1 Diversity of organisms – IB Style Questions For SL Paper 2

IB DP Biology- A3.1 Diversity of organisms - IB Style Questions For SL Paper 2 - FA 2025

IBDP Biology Paper 2 - All Chapters

Question

Differences can occur widely within a single species, such as domestic dogs (Canis familiaris).
(a) Provide a definition for the term species.
(b) Explain how karyotype analysis can help determine whether all of these dogs belong to a single species.

Most-appropriate topic codes :

• TOPIC A3.1: Diversity of organisms — parts (a), (b)
▶️ Answer/Explanation
Detailed solution

(a)
A species is a group of organisms that can interbreed (sexually reproduce) and produce fertile offspring.

(b)
Karyotyping is a technique used to investigate the number and type (e.g., size, banding pattern, centromere position) of chromosomes in a cell. A species has a characteristic number of chromosomes. Therefore, if samples from all the different dog breeds are karyotyped and found to have the same number and type of chromosomes, it would support the conclusion that they belong to the same species.

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