Study Guide: Terms and Concepts Flashcards
Anthropology
Study of humankind, viewed from perspectives of all people and times.
Archaeology
Study of historic or pre-historic human populations through the analysis of material items.
Artifacts
Material objects from past cultures.
Holistic
Relating to or concerned w/ complete systems rather than w/ individual parts.
Ex: Engaging and developing the whole person
Linguistics
Study of language and its structure, including study of morphology, syntax, phonetics, and semantics.
Physical/Biological Anthropology
Physical: Science of human zoology, evolution, and ecology.
Biological: Comparing societies and cultures, looking at change over time, exploring human diversity.
Bio-cultural approach/Bio-cultural evolution
Approach: Interrelationship between what humans have inherited genetically and culture.
Evolution: Mutual, interactive evolution of human biology and culture; the concept that biology makes culture possible and that developing culture further influences the direction of biological evolution
Evolution
Process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of earth.
Paleoanthropology
Concerned w/ fossil hominids
Osteology
Structure and function of skeleton and bony structures
Primate
Chief bishop or archibishop of a province
Forensic Anthropology
Examination of human skeletal remains for law enforcement agencies to determine the identity of unidentified bones.
Lactose Intolerance
Inability to digest lactose–a sugar derived from milk, and dairy products.
Great chain of being = Great scale of being
Strict, religious hierarchical structure of all matter and life, believed to have been decreed by God.
Immutability of species
The idea that each individual specie on the planet was specially created by God and could never fundamentally change.
Fixity of species
All species remained unchanged throughout the history of earth.
Natural selection
The process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.
Catastrophism
Theory that changes in the earth’s crust during geological history have resulted chiefly from sudden violent and unusual events.
Lamarckism
The idea that an organism can pass on characteristics that it has required during its lifetime to its offspring.
Uniformitarianism
Was an assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe.
Differential Fertility
Variation in fertility of different groups or classes in the population.
Differential Mortality
All deaths reported in a given population
Fitness
Ability to survive to reproductive age, fine a mate, and produce offspring.
Fitness relative to environment
Organisms that produce more surviving offspring are more fit.
Binomial Nomenclature
Formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts.
Industrial Melanism
Prevalence of dark-colored varieties of animals in industrial areas where they are better camouflaged.
Ex: Moths
Microevolution
Evolutionary change within a species or small group of organisms.
Dominant
Powerful, or influential
Recessive
Relating to or denoting heritable characteristics controlled by genes that are expressed in offspring only when inherited by both parents.
Genotype
Genetic constitution of an individual organism
Phenotype
Set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype w/ the environment.
Punnet Square
Diagram used to predict an outcome of a particular cross or breeding experiment.
Heterozygous/heterozygote
Zygous: Pair of genes where one is recessive, and one is dominant.
Zygote: An individual having two different alleles of a particular gene or genes.
Homozygous/homozygote
Zygous: Pair of matching alleles
Zygote: An individual having two identical alleles of a particular gene or genes.
Meiosis
Type of cell division that results in four daughter cells each w/ half the number of chromosomes of the parent cell.
Mitosis
Type of cell division that results in two daughter cells each having the same number and kind of chromosomes as the parent nucleus.
Haploid
Deriving from cell or nucleus–having a single set of unpaired chromosomes.
Diploid
Deriving from cell or nucleus–containing two complete sets of chromosomes, one from each parent.
Blending theory
The discredited theory that inheritance of traits from two parents produces offspring w/ characteristics that are intermediate between those of the parents.
Independent assortment
Formation of random combinations of chromosomes in meiosis and of genes on different pairs of homologous chromosomes by the passage.
Particulate inheritance
(Pattern of Inheritance) Showing that phenotypic traits can be passed from generation from generation though ‘discrete particles’ known as genes.
Law of segregation
During the production of gametes the two copies of each hereditary factor segregate so that offspring acquire one factor from each parent.
Tay Sachs Disease
Inherited disorder that destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord
Chromosome
Threadlike structure of nucleic acids and protein found in the nucleus of most living cells.
Gene
Unit of hereditary that is transferred from a parent to offspring and is held to determine some characteristic of the offspring.
Allele
One of two or more alternative forms of a gene that arise by mutation and are found at the same place on a chromosome.
Hemizygous
Having or characterized by one or more genes that have no allelic counterparts.
Sickle cell anemia
Severe hereditary form of anemia in which a mutated form of hemoglobin distorts the red blood cells into a crescent shape at low oxygen levels.
Sickle cell allele
When a person has an abnormal allele of the hemoglobin beta gene (is heterozygous), but does not display the severe symptoms of sickle cell disease.
Blood types in ABO blood system
Type A
Type B
Type O
Type AB
Universal donor
Individual who inherits blood type O, who can donate blood to any recipient of blood type ABO
Universal recipient
Individual who inherits blood type AB, who can in theory receive donated blood from blood groups ABO.
Agglutination
When a blood type is given to an unmatched individual of a blood group.
Ex: Blood type B is transfused w/ blood type A.
Gamete (sex cell)
Mature haploid male of female germ cell that is able to unite w/ another of the opposite sex
Zygote
Diploid cell resulting from the fusion of two haploid gametes.
Somatic cell
Any cell of a living organism other than the reproductive cells.
Human genome project
International scientific research project w/ the goal of determining the sequence chemical base pairs which make up human DNA.
Balanced polymorphism
Situation in which two different versions of a gene are maintained in a population of organisms because individuals carrying both versions are better able to survive than those who have two copies of either version alone.
Sex-link trait
A trait associated w/ a gene that is carried only by the male or female parent.
X-linked trait
Controlled by a gene or genes on the X chromosome.
Centromere
The point on a chromosome by which it is attached to a spindle fiber during cell division.
Chromatid
Each of the two threadlike strands into which a chromosome divides longitudinally during cell division.`
Homologous
Having the same relation, relative posistion, or structure, in particular.
Crossing over (recombination)
Exchange of genes between homologous chromosomes, resulting in a mixture of parental characteristics in offspring.
Locus/loci
Position, point, or place.
DNA
Self-replicating material present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent of chromosomes.
Double helix
Pair of parallel helices intertwined about a common axis, specially in the structure of a DNA strand.
RNA
Nucleic acid present in all living cells. Act as a messenger carrying instructions for DNA for controlling the synthesis of protein.
mRNA
Carries a portion of the DNA code to other parts of the cell for processing.
tRNA
Helps decode the messenger RNA sequence into a protein.
Codon (triplet)
Sequence of three nucleotides that together form a unit of genetic code in a DNA or RNA molecule.
Amino Acid
Simple organic compound containing both, carboxyl, and an amino group.
Hemophilia
When the blood to clot is severely reduced, causing the individual to bleed severely.
Mutation
Changing of the structure of a gene, resulting in a variant, form that may be transmitted to subsequent generations.
Point mutation
Mutation affecting only one or very few nucleotides in gene sequence.
Chromosomial mutation
Any event that changes genetic structure; any alteration is the inherited nucleic acid sequence of the genotype of an organism.
Down syndrome
Tri-somy 21; disorder causing developmental and intellectual delays
Trisomy
Extra copy of a chromosome found in the nuclei of a cell; which causes developmental abnormalities.
Monosomy
Having a diploid chromosome complement in which one chromosome lacks its homologous partner.
Polypeptide chain
Chain of amino acids joined together through peptide bonds.
Nucleotide
Compound consisting of nucleoside linked to a phosphate group.
Non-disjunction
Failure of one or more pairs of homologous chromosomes or sister chromatids to separate normally during nuclear division.
Gene flow (migration)
Movement of individuals, and/or the genetic material they carry, from one population to another.
Random Genetic Drift
Change in the frequency of a gene variant (allele) in a population due to random sampling of organisms.
Founder Effect
Reduced genetic diversity that results when a population is descended from a small number of colonizing ancestors.
