Bio Module 2 Topic 2: Evolution Flashcards
Theory of Natural Selection
the process through which populations of living organisms adapt to the environment and change to survive. Those that don’t change die out.
Artificial Selection
the identification by humans of desirable traits in plants and animals
Heritability
summarizes how much of the variation in a trait is due to variation in genetic factors.
Evolution
the change in the characteristics of a species over several generations
morphological
relating to the branch of biology that deals with the form of living organisms, and with relationships between their structures.
biochemical
branch of science that explores the chemical processes within and related to living organisms
analogous
comparable in certain respects, typically in a way which makes clearer the nature of the things compared.
homologous
similar in position, structure, and evolutionary origin but not necessarily in function.
biogeography
the branch of biology that deals with the geographical distribution of plants and animals.
spandrels
a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square.
stabilizing selection
a type of natural selection in which the population mean stabilizes on a particular non-extreme trait value.
disruptive selection
if both short and tall organisms, but not medium height organisms were favored this would be disruptive selection in action.
directional selection
individuals with traits on one side of the mean in their population survive better or reproduce more than those on the other.
convergent evolution
the process whereby distantly related organisms independently evolve similar traits to adapt to similar necessities.
