Evolutionary Principles Flashcards
Speciation
The formation of a new species
Adaption
Any characteristic that makes an organism more suited to its environment
Fitness
the reproductive sucess of an individual relative to other members of the population
Artificial Selection
Breed selected animals with particular traits to reproduce
Fossile Record
Fossils trapped in rock strata
Vestigial Structures
anatomical features that are fully developed in one group of organisms but reduced and nonfunctional in other, similar groups.
Homologous Structures
Anatomically similar structures explainiable by inheritence from a common ancestor
Analogous Structures
Not constructed similarly, and do not have common ancestry.
Biogeography
The study of the distribution of life-forms on Earth
Fossils
The remains of once living species often found in strata.
Strata
Layers of rocks formed from sedimentary material
Natural Selection
Process that results in the evolution of organisms well adapted to their environments.
Uniformitarianism
Slow changes occur at a uniform rate
_________ developed the idea that acquired characteristics can be inherited?
Lamarck
The variations necessary for natural selection…
Occur Randomly
Influenced by the environment
Caused by mutation
Caused by recombination during meiosis
Which is most likely to be favored during natural selection, but not artificial selection?
Efficiant seed disperal
Natural selection is the only process that results in?
Addaption to the environment
Why was it helpful to Darwin to learn that Lyell concluded the earth was very old?
It meant there was enough time for evolution to have occured slowly.
All the finches on the Galapagos Island….?
Are decended from a common ancestor and therefore are related and they rarely compete for the same food source
Evolution is considered a?
Theory because it is supported by multiple types of data
Catastraphist were not able to explain
Multiple extinctions
The replacement of one group of organisms by another
Successive changes that link groups of organisms in the fossil record
Fossils that serve as transistional links allow scientist to?
Deduce the order in which various groups of animals arose
Among vertebrates, the flipper of a dolphin and the fin of a tuna are?
Homologous structures
According to the inheritence of acquired characteristics hypothesis..?
If a man loses a hand, then his children will also be missing a hand.
Changes in phenotypes are passed on by way of the genotype to the next generation.
Organisms are able to bring about a change in their phenotype.
Evolution is striving towards particular traits.
Organisms?
Compete with other members of their species.
Differ in fitness.
Addapted to their environment.
Are related be descent from common ancestors.
DNA nucleotide differences between organisms
Indicate how closely related they are.
Indicate that evolution occurs.
Explain why there are phenotype differences.
Are to be expected.
The fossil record offers direct evidence for common descent because you can?
See that the types of fossils change over time.
Sometimes find common ancestors.
Trace the ancestory of a particular group.
Trace the biological history of living things.
Molecular evidence is increasingly used today to establish relationships because?
Genes are composed of DNA
For there to be homologous structures..
A common ancestor had to have existed
