Evolution Flashcards
evolution
the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations
natural selection
the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype
homologus structures
is similarity due to shared ancestry between a pair of structures or genes in different taxa.
analogous structures
eatures of different species that are similar in function but not necessarily in structure and which do not derive from a common ancestral feature
vestigal organs
genetically determined structures or attributes that have lost some or all of the ancestral function in a given species
3 examples of vestigal organs
wisdom teeth, male uterus, appendix
convergent evolution
similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time.
divergent evolution
the accumulation of differences between closely related populations within a species, sometimes leading to speciation.
gene pool
the set of all genes, or genetic information, in any population, usually of a particular species
species
Organisms that are so closely related that they breed and produce fertile offspring
who adopted the theory of evolution
Charles Darwin
allele frequency
is the relative frequency of an allele at a particular locus in a population, expressed as a fraction or percentage.
James Hutton’s purpose
says that members of species vary, and that when the environment changes over time, those individuals best adapted to the new environment will survive, while those poorly adapted will perish.
Charles Lyell’s purpose
developed the theory of uniformitarianism
the processes by which current geological features were created were slow, steady, and constant.
1 type of reproductive isolation
geographical
