Apes Chapter 4

Front 1

species

Back 1

a set of individuals that can mate and produce fertile offspring

Front 2

biomes

Back 2

large regions such as forests, deserts, and grasslands with distinct climates and certain species adapted to them

Front 3

fossils

Back 3

mineralized or petrified replicas of skeletons, bones, teeth, shells, leaves, and seeds, or impressions of such items found in rocks

Front 4

fossil record

Back 4

the entire body of evidence gathered using these methods (of excavating fossils)

Front 5

biodiversity

Back 5

the variety of the earth's species, or varying forms of life, the genes they contain, the ecosystems in which they live, and the ecosystem processes of energy flow and nutrient cycling that sustain all life

Front 6

biological evolution

Back 6

the process whereby earth's life changes over time through changes in the genetic characteristics of populations

Front 7

theory of evolution

Back 7

all species descended from earlier ancestr

Front 8

adaptation

Back 8

any heritable trait that improves the ability of an organism to survive and to reproduce at a higher rate than other individuals in a population

Front 9

mutations

Back 9

random changes in the DNA molecules of a gene in any cell that can be inherited by offspring

Front 10

differential reproduction

Back 10

enables individuals with the trait to produce more surviving offspring than other members of the population produce

Front 11

speciation

Back 11

one species splits into two or more different species

Front 12

reproductive isolation

Back 12

mutation and change by natural selection operate independently in the gene pools of geographically isolated populations

Front 13

extinction

Back 13

the process in which an entire species ceases to exist

Front 14

endemic species

Back 14

species that are only found in one area (vulnerable to extinction)

Front 15

background extinction

Back 15

species disappearing at a slow rate

Front 16

mass extinction

Back 16

a significant rise in extinction rates above the background level

Front 17

species diversity

Back 17

the number and variety of species a community contains

Front 18

ecological niche

Back 18

the role that a species plays in its ecosystem

Front 19

generalist species

Back 19

have broad niches