evolution
Terms
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- macroevolution
- large scale modifications that occur over long time periods and produce new species
- sexual selection
- the preferential choice of a mate based on a specific phenotypic trait
- principle of uniformitarianism
- principle that says geological structure of the earth resuited from cycles of observetable processes and that the same process operate continually through time
- genetic equilibrium
- alternate forms of a trait have equal frequencies ex. p=50% q=50%
- adaptation
- an inherited trait that increases an organisms chance of survival in a particular environment
- adaptive radiation
- an evolutionary pattern in which many species evolve from a single ancestral species
- natural selection
- the process by which organims with favorable variations reproduce at higher rates than those without such variations
- analagous
- similar appearance and function but different ancestral origin
- disruptive selection
- a type of natural selection in which individuals with two extreme forms of a trait have an advantage
- stabilizing selection
- a type of natural selection in which the average form of a trait causes an organism to have an advantage in reproduction
- vestigial structure
- referring to the functionless structure that was functional in an ancestral species
- divergent evolution
- the process of two or more related species becoming more and more dissimilar
- radioactive dating
- a method of determining the age of an object by measuring the amount of a specific radioactive isotope it contains
- microevolution
- small scale modifications that occur over short periods and result in a change in gene frequency within a population
- gene pool
- all the genes for all of the traits in a population
- convergent evolution
- the process by which unrelated species become more similar as they adapt to the same kind of environment
- fitness
- a measurement of the ability of a species to respond to the pressures of natural selection and produce the most viable offspring
- evolution
- descent with modification
- founder effect
- occurs when a new population is established by a relatively few individuals.
- fossils
- the remains or traces of a once living organism
- mass extinction
- one of a brief period of time during which large numbers of species disappeared
- directional selection
- individuals that display a more EXTREME form of a trait have greater fitness
- coevolution
- the mutual modification of two different species interacting with each other
- punctuated equilibrium
- a theory that speciation occurs during brief periods of rapid genetic change
- speciation
- the formation of a new species
- endosymbiosis
- a theory of the evolution of eukaryotes by the formation of a mutualistic relationship between two prokaryotes
- reproductive isolation
- the inability of formerly interbreeding organisms to produce viable offspring
- genetic drift
- a shift of allele frequencies in a population due to random chance
- relative dating
- A procedure for comparing the amount of a radioactive isotope and its decay product to determine the age of a geologic specimen.
- survival of the fittest
- the individuals capable of producing the most viable offspring in a population
- Hardy-Weinberg principle
- the stability of gene frequencies across generations
- relative frequency
- the abundance of one form of a gene or trait compared to an alternative form of the same gene or trait.
- homologous
- similar feature originated in a shared ancestor