Chapter 24-Natural Selection

Question 0

Population Thinking

Answer 0

The idea that variation among individuals in a population is the key to understanding the nature of species.

Question 1

Population

Answer 1

Individuals of the same species that are living in the same place at the same time.

Question 2

Descent with Modification

Answer 2

Species and their descendant species change through time.

Question 3

Fossil Record

Answer 3

Consists of all the fossils that have been found and described in scientific literature.

Question 4

Fossil

Answer 4

Any trace of an organism that lived in the past.

Question 5

Geologic Time Scale

Answer 5

A sequence of named intervals called eons, eras, and periods that represented the major events in Earth history.

Question 6

Sedimentary Rocks

Answer 6

Rocks that form from sand, mud, or other materials deposited at locations such as beaches or river mouths. Form in layers.

Question 7

Extinct

Answer 7

A species that no longer exists.

Question 8

Transitional Feature

Answer 8

A trait in a fossil species that is intermediate between those of older and younger species.

Question 9

Vestigial Trait

Answer 9

A reduced or incompletely developed structure that has reduced or no function, but is similar to functioning organs or structures in closely related species.

Question 10

Phylogeny

Answer 10

A family tree of populations or species.

Question 11

Homology

Answer 11

A similiarity that exists in species because they both inherited the trait from a common ancestor.

Question 12

Genetic Homology

Answer 12

Homology that occurs in DNA sequences.

Question 13

Developmental Homology

Answer 13

Homology that is recognized in embryos.

Question 14

Structural Homology

Answer 14

Similiarity in adult morphology, or form.

Question 15

Morphology

Answer 15

Form or appearance.

Question 16

Natural Selection

Answer 16

A process of evolution where only the fittest, or most likely to survive, organisms survive long enough to produce offspring.

Question 17

Biological Fitness

Answer 17

The ability of an individual to produce surviving offspring, relative to that ability in other individuals in the population.

Question 18

Tuberculosis

Answer 18

An infection that was once a scourge of humanity and a great public health issue.

Question 19

Natural Experiment

Answer 19

An experiment that allows researchers to compare treatment groups created by an unplanned change in conditions.

Question 20

Acclimation

Answer 20

Changes in an individual’s phenotype that occur in response to changes in environmental conditions.

Question 21

Genetic Correlation

Answer 21

Causes by pleiotropy. Selection of alleles for one trait cause a correlated increase in another trait.

Question 22

Fitness Trade-Off

Answer 22

A compromise between traits, in terms of how those traits perform in the environment.

Question 23

Evolution

Answer 23

Change in allele frequency over time.

Question 24

Special Creation

Answer 24

The previous leading explanation for the diversity of organisms. Held that all species are independant in the sense of unrelated to each other, life on Earth is young (6000 years old), and species is immutable or incapable of change.

Question 25

Great Chain of Being

Answer 25

A linear scheme proposed by Aristotle, where species were organized into a sequence based on increased size and complexity, and humans were at the top.

Question 26

Inheritance of Acquired Characters

Answer 26

The idea that an individual's phenotype changes as they develop in response to challenges posed by the environment, and they pass on these phenotypic changes to offspring.

Question 27

Typological Thinking

Answer 27

Based on the idea that species are unchanging types and that variations within species are unimportant or even misleading.

Question 28

Extant

Answer 28

Living today.

Question 29

Phylogenetic Tree

Answer 29

A branching diagram that describes the ancestor-descendant relationships among species.

Question 30

Cetaceans

Answer 30

A group of organisms including whales and dolphins.

Question 31

Relative Dating

Answer 31

Dating based on the position of sedimentary rocks where fossils are found.

Question 32

Absolute Dating

Answer 32

Uses the analysis of radioactive atoms in rocks in or near the layers where fossils were found.

Question 33

Radiometric Dating

Answer 33

Analysis of the proportion of radioactive "parent" atoms to their more stable "daughter" atoms in a material to determine age.

Question 34

Allele Frequency

Answer 34

The frequency of selected traits from one generation to the next.

Question 35

Heritable Variation

Answer 35

The trait differences in individuals are heritable and can be passed on to offspring genetically.

Question 36

Heritable Traits

Answer 36

Traits in an individual that can be inherited by descendants.

Question 37

Adaptation

Answer 37

A heritable trait that increases the fitness of an individual in a particular environment, relative to individuals lacking the trait.

Question 38

Antibiotic Resistance

Answer 38

The resistance in bacteria to antibiotics caused by bacteria with resistance surviving previous rounds of antibiotics and reproducing, eventually causing completely resistant bacteria.

Question 39

Selfish Allele

Answer 39

An allele that prevents self-sacrificing behaviors and allows an individual to survive and produce offspring.

Question 40

Genetic Constraint

Answer 40

The constraint of evolution where certain negative traits evolve due to an inability to produce positive traits due to a lack of genetic variation, or correlation of genes.

Question 41

Historical Constraints

Answer 41

The constraint that all traits evolved from previously existing traits.

Question 42

Vertebrates

Answer 42

Organisms with a backbone.

Question 43

Internal Consistency

Answer 43

The observation that data from independent sources agree in supporting predictions made by a theory.