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10 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
adaptation |
heritable characteristic that increases an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in an environment. |
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analogous structure |
body parts that share a common function, but not structure |
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artificial selection |
selective breeding of plants and animals to promote the occurrence of desirable traits in offspring |
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biogeography |
study of past and present distribution of organisms |
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evolution |
change over time; the process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms |
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fitness |
how well an organism can survive and reproduce in its environment |
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fossil |
preserved remains or traces of ancient organisms |
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homologous structure |
structures that are similar in different species of common ancestry |
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natural selection |
process by which organisms are most suited to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully - also called survival of the fittest |
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vestigial structure |
structure that is inherited from ancestors but has lost much or all of its original function |