Science Natural Selection Flashcards
The remains or physical evidence of an organism preserved by geological processes.
Fossil
A historical sequence of life indicated by fossils found in layers of the Earths crust.
Fossil Record
A genetically determined characteristic.
Trait
The human practice of breeding animals or plants that have certain desired characterisitcs.
Selective Breeding
The process by whuch individuals that are better adapted to their enviroment survive and reproduce more successfully than less well adapted individuals do; a theory to explain the mechanism of evolution.
Natural selection
The period between the birth of one generation and the birth of the next generation.
Generation Time
The formation of new species as a result of evolution.
Speciation
Any method of determining whether an event r objects is older or younger than other events or objects.
Relative dating.
Any method of measuring the age of an object or event in years.
Absolute dating
The standard method used to divide the Earth’s long natural history into manageable.
Geologic time scale
Describes a species that has died out completely.
Extinct
The theroy that explains how large pieces of the Earths outermost layer, called to Tectonic plates, move and change shape.
Plate Tectonics
A type of mammal characterized by opposable thumbs and biocular vision.
Primate
A type of primate characterized by bipedalism, relatively long lower limbs and lack of a trail.
Hominid
The species of hominids that includes modern humans and their closest ancestors and that first appeared about 100,000 to 160,000 years ago.
Homo sapiens
