UNIT 4 VOCABULARY

Question 1

Biogenesis

Answer 1

The production of new living organisms or organelles

Question 2

Spontaneous generation

Answer 2

Idea that nonliving things could produce living things

Francesco Redi helped disprove theory (1668)

Question 3

Radiometric dating

Answer 3

Measures the exact age of a fossil by measuring the amount of radioactive elements

Question 4

Chemosynthesis

Answer 4

Energy obtained without photosynthesis

The synthesis of organic compounds within an organism, with chemical reactions providing the energy source

Question 5

Cyanobacteria

Answer 5

A group of photosynthetic bacteria containing a blue photosynthetic pigment

Question 6

Endosymbiosis

Answer 6

Symbiosis in which one symbiont lives within the body of the other

Question 7

Evolution

Answer 7

Any process of formation or growth development

Question 8

Natural selection

Answer 8

Process where organisms with favorable traits are more likely to reproduce or pass on traits to the next generation

Question 9

Adaption

Answer 9

The process of becoming adapted to an environment, a trait that improves an organisms ability to survive and reproduce

Question 10

Fitness

Answer 10

In evolutionary theory, a measure of an individual’s heredity contribution to the next generation

Question 11

Fossil

Answer 11

The trace or remains of an organism that lived long ago, most commonly preserved in sedimentary rock

Question 12

Superposition

Answer 12

A principle that states that younger rocks lie above older rocks if the layers have not been disturbed

Question 13

Homologous structure

Answer 13

Structures that are similar in function and or structure

Viewed as evidence that organisms evolved from a common ancestor

Question 14

Analogous structure

Answer 14

Body parts of organisms that do not have a common evolutionary origin, but are similar in function

Question 15

Vestigial structure

Answer 15

Body structure that has no function in a present day organism but was probably useful to an ancestor

Question 16

Phylogeny

Answer 16

The evolutionary history of a species or taxonomic group, the relationships by ancestry among species or taxonomic groups

Question 17

Convergent evolution

Answer 17

The process by which unrelated species become more similar as they adapt to the same kind of environment

Question 18

Divergent evolution

Answer 18

The process by which two or more related but reproductively isolated populations become more and more dissimilar

Question 19

Adaptive radiation

Answer 19

an evolutionary pattern in which many species evolve from a single ancestral species

Question 20

Artificial selection

Answer 20

The selective breeding of organisms (by humans) for specific desirable characteristics