Chapter 10 And 12 Vocabulary Words - Principles of Evolution and the History of Life

Question 0

Radiometric dating

Answer 0

• A technique that uses the natural decay rate of unstable isotopes found in materials in order to calculate the age of of that material

Question 1

Relative dating

Answer 1

• Estimates the time during which an organism lived by comparing the placement of fossils of that organism with the placement of fossils in other layers of rocks

Question 2

Isotope

Answer 2

• Atoms of an element that have the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons

Question 3

Half-life

Answer 3

• Time taken for the radioactivity of a specified isotope to fall to half its original value.

Question 4

Geological Time Scale

Answer 4

• System of chronological measurement that relates stratigraphy to time, and is used by geologists, paleontologists, and other earth scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred throughout Earth’s history.

Question 5

Ribozyme

Answer 5

• RNA molecule capable of acting as an enzyme.

Question 6

Cyanobacteria

Answer 6

• Division of microorganisms that are related to the bacteria but are capable of photosynthesis. They are prokaryotic and represent the earliest known form of life on the earth

Question 7

Endosymbiosis

Answer 7

• Symbiosis in which one of the symbiotic organisms lives inside the other.

Question 8

The Cambrian Period

Answer 8

• Refers to the appearance in the fossil record of most major animal body plans about 543 million years ago. The new fossils appear in an interval of 20 million years or less.

Question 9

Bipedal

Answer 9

• (of an animal) using only two legs for walking.

Question 10

Evolution

Answer 10

• Process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth

Question 11

Species

Answer 11

• A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding.

Question 12

Fossil

Answer 12

• Remains or impression of a prehistoric organism preserved in petrified form or as a mold or cast in rock.

Question 13

Variation

Answer 13

• A modification in structure, form or function in an organism, deviating from other organisms of the same species or group.

Question 14

Adaptation

Answer 14

• Adjustment or changes in behavior, physiology, and structure of an organism to become more suited to an environment.

Question 15

Artificial Selection

Answer 15

• Process by which humans breed other animals and plants for particular traits

Question 16

Natural selection

Answer 16

• Process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring

Question 17

Population

Answer 17

• All the inhabitants of a particular town, area, or country

Question 18

Homologous structure

Answer 18

• An example of an organ or bone that appears in different animals, underlining anatomical commonalities demonstrating descent from a common ancestor

Question 19

Analogous structure

Answer 19

• Similar in function but having different evolutionary origins, as the wings of a butterfly and the wings of a bird

Question 20

Vestigial structure

Answer 20

• Applies to genetically determined structures or attributes that have apparently lost most or all of their ancestral function in a given species

Question 21

Paleontology

Answer 21

• branch of science concerned with fossil animals and plants.