UNIT 4 VOCABULARY Flashcards
Biogenesis
The production of new living organisms or organelles
Spontaneous generation
Idea that nonliving things could produce living things
Francesco Redi helped disprove theory (1668)
Radiometric dating
Measures the exact age of a fossil by measuring the amount of radioactive elements
Chemosynthesis
Energy obtained without photosynthesis
The synthesis of organic compounds within an organism, with chemical reactions providing the energy source
Cyanobacteria
A group of photosynthetic bacteria containing a blue photosynthetic pigment
Endosymbiosis
Symbiosis in which one symbiont lives within the body of the other
Evolution
Any process of formation or growth development
Natural selection
Process where organisms with favorable traits are more likely to reproduce or pass on traits to the next generation
Adaption
The process of becoming adapted to an environment, a trait that improves an organisms ability to survive and reproduce
Fitness
In evolutionary theory, a measure of an individual’s heredity contribution to the next generation
Fossil
The trace or remains of an organism that lived long ago, most commonly preserved in sedimentary rock
Superposition
A principle that states that younger rocks lie above older rocks if the layers have not been disturbed
Homologous structure
Structures that are similar in function and or structure
Viewed as evidence that organisms evolved from a common ancestor
Analogous structure
Body parts of organisms that do not have a common evolutionary origin, but are similar in function
Vestigial structure
Body structure that has no function in a present day organism but was probably useful to an ancestor
Phylogeny
The evolutionary history of a species or taxonomic group, the relationships by ancestry among species or taxonomic groups
Convergent evolution
The process by which unrelated species become more similar as they adapt to the same kind of environment
Divergent evolution
The process by which two or more related but reproductively isolated populations become more and more dissimilar
Adaptive radiation
an evolutionary pattern in which many species evolve from a single ancestral species
Artificial selection
The selective breeding of organisms (by humans) for specific desirable characteristics
