Use LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys to navigate between flashcards;
Use UP and DOWN arrow keys to flip the card;
H to show hint;
A reads text to speech;
18 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Evolution
|
The process of biological change by which descendants come to differ from their ancestors
|
|
Species
|
Is a group of organisms so similar to one another that they can reproduce and have fertile offspring
|
|
Fossils
|
Are traces of organisms that existed in the past
|
|
Catastrophism
|
States that natural disasters have happened often during earth's long history
|
|
Gradualism
|
Slow changes over a long period of time
|
|
Uniformitarianism
|
The geologic processes that shape earth are uniform through time
|
|
Variation
|
Is the difference in the physical traits of an individual from those individuals in the group to which it belongs
|
|
Adaptation
|
A feature that allows an organism to better survive in its environment
|
|
Artificial selection
|
humans change a species by breeding it for certain traits.
|
|
Heritability
|
the ability of a trait to be passed down from one generation to the next
|
|
Natural selection
|
is a mechanism by which individuals that have inherited beneficial adaptations produce more offspring on average than do other individuals
|
|
Population
|
all the individuals of a species that live in an area
|
|
Fitness
|
a measure of the ability to survive and produce more offspring relative to other members of the population in a given environment
|
|
Biogeography
|
the study of the distribution of organisms around the world.
|
|
Homologous structure
|
features that are similar in structure but appear in different organisms and have different functions
|
|
analogous structures
|
structures that preform a similar function
|
|
Vestigial structures
|
are remnants of organs or structures that had a function in an early ancestor.
|
|
Paleontology
|
the study of fossils or extinct organisms
|