Evolution Vocab 2
Terms
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- Evolution
- the gradual change of allele frequencies found in a population
- Organic evolution
- the process of continual change that occurs in species over time
- Fossil
- any trace or remains of an organism that has been preserved by natural processes
- Sedimentary Rock
- a type of rock formed from layers of particles that settled to the bottom of a body of water, often containing fossils
- Absolute dating
- any method that enables scientists to find out how long ago an event occured
- Relative dating
- any method of determining the order in which events occured
- Homologous structures
- structures found in different kinds of organisms that have the same basic arrangement of parts and a similar pattern of embryologic development
- Analogous structures
- structures found in different kinds of organisms that are similar function or outward appearance, but dissimilar in basic structure or embryologic development
- Vestigal structures
- nonfunctional structures in an organism that are a remnant of structures that were functional in some anscestral form of the organism
- Adaptation
- any kind of inherited trait that improves the chances of survival and reproduction for an organism
- Variations
- the characteristics in individuals that differ from the typical characteristics of other individuals of the same species
- Speciation
- the formation of new species
- Spontaneous generation
- the idea that living things regularly arise from nonliving matter; abiogenesis
- Biogenesis
- the theory that living organisms only originate from other organisms
- Geologic time scale
- a timetable of the earth's history, constructed by geologists
- Gradualism
- Darwin's theory of evolution, in which new species arise through gradual changes in their characteristics, and thus evolution occurs very slowly
- Punctual equilibrium
- a theory of evolution stating that a species remains the same for a long time and then evolves rapidly during a short time interval
- Camouflage
- a protective adaptation that enables an organism to visually blend into the environment
- Warning coloration
- a protective adaptation in which the bright colors of an organism make it easily recognized
- Mimicry
- a protective adaptation in which one species is protected from its enemies by its resemblance to another species
- Mutation
- the appearance of a new allele on a chromosome
- Extinction
- the end of a species when the last individual of that species has died
- Natural selection
- the process whereby organisms with favorable variations survive and produce more offspring than less well-adapted organisms
- Adaptive value
- any trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce under a given set of environmental conditions
- Fossil record
- the history of life as determined by the relative age of fossils
- Theory
- an explaination based on facts that apply to a broad range of phenomena
- Overproduction
- when species produce far more offspring than are needed to maintain the population
- Isolation
- anything that prevents two groups within a species from interbreeding
- Industrial Melanism
- the development of dark-colored organisms in a population exposed to industrial air pollution