Chapter 27- Phylogenies And The History Of Life

Question 0

Phylogenetic Tree

Answer 0

A diagram of the ancestor-descendant relationships among populations or species.

Question 1

Phylogeny

Answer 1

The evolutionary history of a group of organisms.

Question 2

Branch

Answer 2

Represents a population through time.

Question 3

Nodes/Fork

Answer 3

Represents the point in time when an ancestral species split into two or more descendant species.

Question 4

Tip/Terminal Node

Answer 4

Represents a group living today or that ended in extinction.

Question 5

Phenetic Approach

Answer 5

Estimates trees based on computing a statistic that summarizes the overall similiarity among populations.

Question 6

Cladistic Approach

Answer 6

Infers trees based on the realizations n that relationships among species can be reconstructed by indentifying shared derived characters.

Question 7

Ancestral Trait

Answer 7

A characteristic that existed in an ancestor.

Question 8

Derived Trait

Answer 8

A trait that is a modified form of the ancestral trait.

Question 9

Homology

Answer 9

When traits are similar due to shared ancestry.

Question 10

Homoplasy

Answer 10

When traits are similar for reasons other than common ancestry.

Question 11

Convergent Evolution

Answer 11

When natural selection favors similar solutions to the problems posed by a similar way of making a living.

Question 12

Parsimony

Answer 12

The most likely explanation or pattern is the one that implies the least amount of change.

Question 13

SINE(Short Interspersed Nuclear Element)

Answer 13

Parasitic gene sequences that occasionally insert themselves into the genomes of mammals.

Question 14

Fossil

Answer 14

A piece of physical evidence from an organism that lived in the past.

Question 15

Fossil Record

Answer 15

The total collection of fossils that have been found throughout the world.

Question 16

Paleontologists

Answer 16

Scientists who study fossils.

Question 17

Precambrian Interval

Answer 17

The interval in between the creation of the Earth and the appearance of most animal groups.

Question 18

Cast

Answer 18

A mold of the remains of an organism.

Question 19

Paleozoic Era

Answer 19

The era in which animals, land plants, and fungi were created and diversified.

Question 20

Mesozoic Era

Answer 20

Began with the end-Permian extinction events and ended with the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Question 21

Cenozoic

Answer 21

Era divided into the Paleogene period and Neogene period. Includes today’s events.

Question 22

Adaptive Radiation

Answer 22

When a single lineage produces many descendant species that live in a wide diversity of habitats and use a wide array of resources.

Question 23

Cambrian Explosion

Answer 23

An event of vast amounts of adaptive radiation during the Cambrian period.

Question 24

Fauna

Answer 24

Collection of animal species.

Question 25

Max Extinction

Answer 25

The rapid extinction of a large number of lineages scattered throughout the tree of life.

Question 26

Background Extinction

Answer 26

The lower, average rate of extinction observed when a mass extinction is not occurring.

Question 27

Impact Hypothesis

Answer 27

The hypothesis that an asteroid struck Earth and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Question 28

Hox genes

Answer 28

Genes that determine organization of the body plan during development.

Question 29

Astragalus

Answer 29

An ankle bone.

Question 30

Artiodactyl

Answer 30

Group of organisms with a pulley-shaped astragalus.

Question 31

Burgess Shale Fauna

Answer 31

The first arthropods.

Question 32

Ediacarian Fauna

Answer 32

Sponges, jellyfish, comb jellies.

Question 33

Habitat Bias

Answer 33

Organisms living in areas where sedimenta are actively being deposited are more likely to form fossils.

Question 34

Taxonomic Bias

Answer 34

Organisms with hard parts are most likely to leave fossil evidence.

Question 35

Tissue Bias

Answer 35

Hard tissues are more likely to be fossilized that soft tissues.

Question 36

Abundance Bias

Answer 36

Species that were abundance are more likely to leave fossil evidence

Question 37

Monophyletic Groups/Clade/Lineage

Answer 37

A group of an ancestral population, all of its descendants, and only those descendants.

Question 38

Polytomy

Answer 38

A node in a phylogeny with more than two descendant lineages.

Question 39

Taxon

Answer 39

Any unit used in the science of biological classification.

Question 40

Genetic Distance

Answer 40

The measure of genetic divergence between species.

Question 41

Synapomorphy

Answer 41

A trait that is shared by species with a common ancestor, and is unique to that lineage and found in no others.

Question 42

Shared Derived Characteristics

Answer 42

A trait evolved in an ancestral species that is shared by all its descendants.

Question 43

Fossilization

Answer 43

The creation of a fossil.

Question 44

Permineralized Fossils

Answer 44

Fossils created when the spaces between cells is replaced by minerals.

Question 45

Radiometric Dating

Answer 45

Type of dating where ratio of parent to daughter radiation atoms is used to exactly date a mineral.

Question 46

Molecular Clock

Answer 46

The theory that some evolutionary changes occur in a certain rate, like a clock.

Question 47

Diversification

Answer 47

The creation of more biodiversity through genetic divergence.

Question 48

Ecological Opportunity

Answer 48

When an organism takes advantage of the lack of competitors and acclimates itself to fit the environment.

Question 49

Ecological Niche

Answer 49

The role and position an organism/species has in its environment.

Question 50

Doushantou Microfossils

Answer 50

Pre Cambrian microfossils of tiny organisms found in China.

Question 51

End-Permian Extinction

Answer 51

Mass extinction that ended the Permian and began the Triassic.

Question 52

Iridium

Answer 52

An element found in large amounts in space, often found in meteor impacts sites.

Question 53

Shocked Quartz

Answer 53

Quartz with a unique structure that forms when under heavy pressure but limited temperature.

Question 54

Microtektite

Answer 54

A tektite, a material mainly made of silica, of less than a millimeter in size.