Ch.11 Evolution and its process

Question 1

adaptation

Answer 1

a heritable trait or behavior in an organism that aids in its survival in its present environment

Question 2

adaptive radiation

Answer 2

a speciation when one species radiates out to form several other species

Question 3

allopatric speciation

Answer 3

a speciation that occurs via a geographic separation

Question 4

analogous structure

Answer 4

a structure that is similar because of evolution in response to similar selection pressures resulting in convergent evolution, not similar because of descent from a common ancestor

Question 5

bottleneck effect

Answer 5

the magnification of genetic drift as a result of natural events or catastrophes

Question 6

convergent evolution

Answer 6

an evolution that results in similar forms on different species

Question 7

dispersal

Answer 7

an allopatric speciation that occurs when a few members of a species move to a new geographical area

Question 8

divergent evolution

Answer 8

an evolution that results in different forms in two species with a common ancestor

Question 9

founder effect

Answer 9

a magnification of genetic drift in a small population that migrates away from a large parent population carrying with it an unrepresentative set of alleles

Question 10

gene flow

Answer 10

the flow of alleles in and out of a population due to the migration of individuals or gametes

Question 11

gene pool

Answer 11

all of the alleles carried by all of the individuals in the population

Question 12

genetic drift

Answer 12

the effect of chance on a population’s gene pool

Question 13

homologous structure

Answer 13

a structure that is similar because of descent from a common ancestor

Question 14

inheritance of acquired characteristics

Answer 14

a phrase that describes the mechanism of evolution proposed by Lamarck in which traits acquired by individuals through use or disuse could be passed on to their offspring thus leading to evolutionary change in the population

Question 15

macroevolution

Answer 15

a broader scale of evolutionary changes seen over paleontological time

Question 16

microevolution

Answer 16

the changes in a population’s genetic structure (i.e., allele frequency)

Question 17

migration

Answer 17

the movement of individuals of a population to a new location; in population genetics it refers to the movement of individuals and their alleles from one population to another, potentially changing allele frequencies in both the old and the new population

Question 18

modern synthesis

Answer 18

the overarching evolutionary paradigm that took shape by the 1940s and is generally accepted today

Question 19

natural selection

Answer 19

the greater relative survival and reproduction of individuals in a population that have favorable heritable traits, leading to evolutionary change

Question 20

population genetics

Answer 20

the study of how selective forces change the allele frequencies in a population over time

Question 21

speciation

Answer 21

a formation of a new species

Question 22

sympatric speciation

Answer 22

a speciation that occurs in the same geographic space

Question 23

variation

Answer 23

the variety of alleles in a population

Question 24

vestigal structure

Answer 24

a physical structure present in an organism but that has no apparent function and appears to be from a functional structure in a distant ancestor

Question 25

vicariance

Answer 25

an allopatric speciation that occurs when something in the environment separates organisms of the same species into separate groups