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| Descent with modification; the idea that living species descended from ancestral species; change in the genetic composition of a population throughout generations |
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| Preserved remnant or impression of an organism that lived in the past |
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| Rock layer formed when new layers of sediment cover older ones and compress them |
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| Principle that events in the past occurred suddenly and were caused by different mechanisms than those operating today |
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| Principle that mechanisms of change are constant over time |
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| Lamarck natural selection adaptation |
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| Hypothesis included the ideas of use and disuse, and inheritance of acquired characteristics.. Obviously we know now that he was wrong. :) |
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| Wallace artificial selection resistance |
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| Hypothesis of natural selection was nearly identical to Darwin's (ex. drug resistant bacteria, MRSA) |
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| Similarity in characteristics resulting from a shared ancestry |
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| Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry |
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| A feature of an organism that is a historical remnant of an ancestor's functioning structure (ex. human tailbone) |
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| Evolution of similar features in independent evolutionary lineages |
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| Structures or characteristics in different species that are similar because of convergent evolution (NOT homology) |
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| Study of the past and present geographic distribution of species |
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| Species found only in one geographic area |
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| Change in the allele frequencies in a population over generations |
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| Differences among individuals in composition of their genes |
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| All the alleles of a population |
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| Principle that frequencies of alleles and genotypes in a populaton remain constant from generation to generation, IFF Mendelian segregation and recombination of alleles are influencing the population |
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| Process in which chance events cause unpredictable fluctuations in allele frequencies from one generation to the next; greatly affects small populations |
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| Type of genetic drift; a few individuals are isolated from the larger population, form new population and gene pool isn't representative of original population |
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| Type of genetic drift; size of population is reduced (natural disaster, human actions, etc.), surviving population's gene pool isn't representative of original population anymore |
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| Transfer of alleles from one population to another because of the movement of fertile individuals or of their gametes |
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| Natural selection favors extreme phenotypes; they survive or reproduce more successfully than intermediate phenotypes |
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| Natural selection favors individuals at one end of the phenotypic range; they survive or reproduce more successfully than all other phenotypes |
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Definition
| Natural selection favors intermediate phenotypes; they survive or reproduce more successfully than extreme phenotypes |
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| A form of selection in which individuals with certain inherited traits are more likely than others to obtain mates (e.g. picky, choosy mating) |
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| Phenotypic differences between males and females |
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| Direct competition among individuals of one sex for mates of the opposite sex |
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| Individuals of one sex (usually females) are choosy in selecting their mates from individuals of the other sex; mate choice |
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| Greater reproductive success of heterozygotes than homozygotes; tends to preserve variation in a gene pool |
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| Evolutionary process in which one species splits into two or more species (ex. Galapagos finches) |
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| The broad pattern of evolution above the species level (ex. origin of new groups of organisms, like mammals or flowering plants, through a series of speciation events) |
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| Biological species concept |
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Definition
| Defines species as: group of populations whose members can interbreed and produce viable, fertile offspring, but not with members of other such groups |
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| Morphological species concept |
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Definition
| Defines species in terms of: measurable anatomical criteria |
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| Ecological species concept |
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Definition
| Defines species in terms of: ecological niche (sum of how members interact with the nonliving and living parts of their environment) |
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| Phylogenetic species concept |
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| Defines species as: smallest group of individuals that share a common ancestor |
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| Reproductive barriers that hinder mating between species or hinders fertilization if mating is attempted (ex. habitat, temporal, behavioral, and mechanical) |
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| Reproductive barriers that prevents hybrid zygotes from developing into viable, fertile adults (ex. reduced hybrid viability, reduced hybrid fertility, hybrid breakdown) |
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| Formation of a new species in populations that are geographically isolated from one another |
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| Formation of a new species in populations that live in the same geographic area |
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| Chromosomal alteration (cell division accident) that leads to an organism with two or more complete chromosome sets |
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| Geographic region in which members of different species meet and mate, producing at least some offspring of mixed ancestry |
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| Strengthening of reproductive barriers - hybrids gradually cease to be formed |
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| Weakening of reproductive barriers - the two species fuse (ex. grolar bear) |
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| Continued production of hybrid individuals |
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| Fossils show long periods of little to no change, interrupted by relatively brief periods of sudden change |
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| Abiotic precursor of a living cell; had membrane-like structure and maintained an internal chemistry different from that of its surroundings |
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| RNA molecule that functions as an enzyme (ex. intron that catalyzes its own removal during RNA splicing) |
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| Method for determining the absolute age of rocks and fossils, based on half-life of radioactive isotopes |
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| Division of Earth's history into time periods (eons, eras, periods, epochs, etc.) |
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| Layered rock that shows that prokaryotes have been around for many, many years |
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| Theory that mitochondria and chloroplasts started as prokaryotic cells engulfed by an ancestral eukaryotic cell; engulfed cell and host cell then evolved into single organism |
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| Explosion of life to fill ecological niches (relatively brief in geologic history); emergence of the first large, hard-bodied animals |
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| Theory that continents are parts of great plates of Earth's crust that floats on the mantle; movements in the mantle cause the continents to move slowly over time |
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| Elimination of a large number of species throughout Earth; results from global environmental changes |
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| Amount of atmospheric oxygen shot up relatively rapidly about 2 or 3 billion years ago; impact on life - killed off many prokaryotic groups, evolution of cellular respiration |
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| Period of evolutionary change: organisms' adaptations let them fill different ecological roles in their communities and many new species are formed |
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Definition
| Change in the timing or rate of an organism's development over time (by evolution) |
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| Adult organism that retains the juvenile features of its evolutionary ancestors (ex. sexually mature, but has gills still) |
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| Master regulatory genes that control placement and organization of body parts |
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| Evolutionary history of a species |
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| Similarity between two species due to convergent evolution |
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| Group of species that includes an ancestral species and all of its descendants |
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| The use of the simplest manner of explanation available |
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| Method for estimating the time required for evolutionary change, given that some genomes evolve at constant rates |
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Definition
| Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukaryota |
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Definition
| Transfer of genes from one genome to another |
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