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18 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Descent with modification; the idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that were different from the present-day ones; also defined more narrowly as the change in the genetic composition of a population from generation to generation.
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Evolution
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A preserved remnant or impression of an organism that lived in the past.
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Fossils
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A rock layer formed when new layers of sediment cover older ones and compress them.
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Stratum (Straga)
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The scientific study of fossils.
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Paleontology
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The principle that events in the past occurred suddenly and were caused by different mechanisms than those operating today.
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Catastrophism
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The principle stating that mechanisms of change are constant over time.
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Uniformitarianism
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Inherited characteristics of an organism that enhances its survival and reproduction in specific environments.
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Adaption
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A process in which organisms with certain inherited characteristics are more likely to survive and reproduce than are organisms with other characteristics.
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Natural Selection
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The selective breeding of domesticated plants and animals to encourage the occurrence of desirable traits.
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Artificial Selection
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Similarity in characteristics resulting from a shared ancestry.
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Homology
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Structures in a different species that are similar because of common ancestry.
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Homologous Structures
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A structure of marginal, if any, importance to an organism.
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Vestigial Structures (Vestigial structures are historical remnants of structures that had important functions in ancestors.)
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A branching diagram that reflects a hypothesis about evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms.
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Evolutionary Tree
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The evolution of similar features in independent evolutionary lineages.
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Convergent Evolution
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The study of past and present distribution of species.
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Biogeography
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The slow movement of the continental plates across the Earth’s Surface.
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Continental Drift
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The supercontinent that formed near the end of the Paleozoic era, when plate movements brought all the land masses of earth together.
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Pangaea
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Referring to a species that is confined to a specific, relatively small geographic area.
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Endemic
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