M10 Terms

Question 1

Morphological Species Concept

Answer 1

Distinct group of organisms with a unique set of morphological characteristics (unique external form)

Question 2

Ecological Species Concept

Answer 2

Set of organisms adapted to a particular set of resources in the environment

Question 3

Biological Species Concept

Answer 3

One or more population that can interbreed to produce fertile offspring but are reproductively isolated from other groups

Question 4

Reproductive Isolation

Answer 4

When two species are prevented from interbreeding

Question 5

Fossils

Answer 5

Mineralized remains or impressions of formerly living organisms

Question 6

Homologous Traits

Answer 6

Features that organisms share, inherited from a common ancestor

Question 7

Analogous Traits

Answer 7

Traits that serve the same function, but have different evolutionary origins

Question 8

Divergent Evolution

Answer 8

When two or more species sharing a common ancestor become more different over time

Question 9

Index Species (Fossil)

Answer 9

Under for reference to age a fossil, most common is the trilobites

Question 10

Convergent Evolution

Answer 10

Results in organisms that appear very much alike despite vastly dissimilar genetics; not common descent from common ancestor

Question 11

Vestigial Traits

Answer 11

Another type of trait that many organisms have because of a common descent; inherited from a common ancestor, but are no longer useful

Question 12

Embryonic Development (Similarities)

Answer 12

How an organism develops from a zygote into its full form at birth
Similarities in different organisms show that characteristics arose through evolutionary modifications of traits from common ancestors
Ex. Gill slits and tails during development of humans

Question 13

Atavistic Trait

Answer 13

Represents a reversion to an ancestral state

Question 14

Microevolution

Answer 14

A small change in a species

Question 15

Bottleneck Effect

Answer 15

When a large population, genetic diversity is limited and alleles are lost

Question 16

Cambrian Explosion

Answer 16

Dramatic increase in the diversity of animal life, started 530 Mya and lasted 5-10 million years

Question 17

Mass Extinctions

Answer 17

Periods of time during which great numbers of species went extinct throughout most of Earth

Question 18

Adaptive Radiation

Answer 18

When a lineage may experience multiple speciation events in a relatively short period of time
Conditions that lead to it: colonization of a new location, mass extinctions that remove existing species, and evolution of a novel trait that confers a significant competitive advantage

Question 19

Lobe-Finned Fish

Answer 19

Amphibians, first vertebrates to colonize land, thought to have descended from this fish

Question 20

Stromatolites

Answer 20

Sediment mounds containing fossilized micro-organisms