Chapter 22 Descent w/ Modification Vocab

Question 1

Evolution

Answer 1

Descent with modification; the idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that were different from the present day

Question 2

Paleontology

Answer 2

The study of fossils

Question 3

Natural Selection

Answer 3

a process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits

Question 4

Adaptation

Answer 4

Inherited characteristic of an organism that enhances its survival and reproduction in a specific environment

Question 5

Artificial Selection

Answer 5

the selective breeding of domesticated plants and animals to encourage the occurrence of desirable traits

Question 6

Homologous

Answer 6

similar in position, structure, and evolutionary origin but not necessarily in function.

Question 7

Vestigial Structures

Answer 7

A feature of an organism that is a historical remnant of a structure that served a function in the organism’s ancestors

Question 8

Analogous Structures

Answer 8

Body part in different species that is similar in function but not in structure

Question 9

Fossil

Answer 9

A preserved remnant or impression of an organism that lived in the past

Question 10

Biogeography

Answer 10

the scientific study of the past and present geographic distributions of species

Question 11

Pangaea

Answer 11

the supercontinent that formed near the end of the paleozoic ear, when plate movements brought all the landmasses of earth together