Chapter 22 Vocabulary

Question 0

Scala naturae

Answer 0

“Scale of nature”, ladder-like scale of increasing complexity of life forms

Question 1

Evolution

Answer 1

Descent with modification

Question 2

Binomial

Answer 2

Two-part

Question 3

Fossils

Answer 3

The remains of traces of organisms from the past

Question 4

Strata

Answer 4

(Singular=stratum) layers of rock

Question 5

Paleontology

Answer 5

Study of fossils

Question 6

Catastrophism

Answer 6

The principle that events in the past occurred suddenly and were caused by mechanisms different from those operating in the present

Question 7

Uniformitarianism

Answer 7

States that mechanisms of change are consistent over time

Question 8

Adaptations

Answer 8

Inherited characteristics of organisms that enhance their survival and reproduction in specific environments

Question 9

Natural selection

Answer 9

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 10

Descent with modification

Answer 10

Evolution

Question 11

Artificial selection

Answer 11

Humans have modified other species over many generations by selecting and breeding individuals that possess desired traits

Question 12

Homology

Answer 12

Similarity resulting from common ancestry

Question 13

Homologous structures

Answer 13

Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry

Question 14

Vestigial structures

Answer 14

Remnants of features that served a function in the organism’s ancestors

Question 15

Tetrapods

Answer 15

Four-footed vertebrate group consisting of amphibians, mammals, reptiles, and birds. They all have limits with digits

Question 16

Evolutionary tree

Answer 16

A diagram that reflects evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms

Question 17

Convergent evolution

Answer 17

The independent evolution of similar features in different lineages

Question 18

Analogous

Answer 18

Species share features because of convergent evolution, not homologous

Question 19

Homologous

Answer 19

Features share common ancestry, but not similar function

Question 20

Biogeography

Answer 20

The geographic distribution of species

Question 21

Continental drift

Answer 21

The slow movement of Earth’s continents over time

Question 22

Pangaea

Answer 22

250 million years ago, earth’s continental drifts united all of Earth’s land masses into a single large continent

Question 23

Endemic

Answer 23

Species that are found nowhere else in the world

Question 24

Theory

Answer 24

Accounts for many observations and explains and integrates a great variety of phenomena. More comprehensive than a hypothesis