week 20 Flashcards
what is taxonomy
aims to classify every living thing on the planet, organising the living world.
what is meant by homologous structures
a group of organisms sharing similar anatomical stuctures through common ancestory no matter how they live
what is meant by vestigial structures
reduced structures with no apparent function today
define ontogeny
early developmental stages of distantly related organisms are similar
give some examples of evidence of evolution
comparative anatomy, taxonomy, geology, fossils and biogeography
how does natural selection work
organisms differ (variation), and differences are heritable. more organisms are born than survive and reproduce. any favourable variation providing advantage will more likely be passed onto the next generation.
what is the founder effect
a form of genetic drift where a small group establishes a new population with a different gene pool
what is the bottleneck effect
a small fraction of the population survives that is no longer representative of the original population
what us genetic drift
the random rise and fall of traits in small populations and gene flow
