Chapter 5 Flashcards
Macroevolution
Long-Term evolutionary changes
Microevoltuion
Short-Term evolutionary changesA
Anagenesis
The slow, gradual transformation of a single species over timeP
Phyletic gradualism
A theory arguing that one species gradually transforms itself into a new species over time, yet the actual boundary between species can never be detected but only drawn arbitrarily
Cladogenesis
The birth of a variety of descendant species from a single ancestral species
Punctuated equilibrium
A theory claiming that most of evolutionary history has been characterized by relatively stable species coexisting in an equilibrium that is occasionally punctuated by sudden bursts of speciation, when extinctions are widespread and many new species appear.
Speciation
Occurs when a group within a species separates from other members of its species and develops its own unique characteristics.
Bipedalism
Walking on two feet
Australopiths
An informal term used to refer to all hominins that were the earliest bipedal hominins
Mosaic evolution
A process of change over time in which different phenotypic traits, responding to different selection pressures, may evolve at different rates
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the occurrence, within a given population of organisms, of different rates of evolutionary change in various body structures and functions
Cranial Capacity
The size of the braincase
Homo
The genus to which taxonomists assign large-brained hominins approximately 2 million years old and younger
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The species to which all modern human beings belong
Flakes
Chipped-off pieces of stone that may or may not have been used as small cutting tools
Oldowan Tradition
A stone-tool tradition named after the Olduvai Gorge (In Tanzania)
Taphonomy
The study of the various processes that objects undergo in the course of becoming part of the fossil and archaeological records
