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19 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Evolution |
a heritable change in the characteristics within a population of one generation to the next |
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natural selection |
the process by which individuals that are better adapted to their environment to survive and reproduce more successfully than less well adapted individuals |
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adaptation |
the process of which becoming adapted to an enviroment |
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fitness |
in evolutionary theory a measure of an individuals hereditary contribution to the next generation |
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strara |
layers of rock |
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fossil |
the trace or remains of an organism that lived long ago |
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absolute age |
the numeric age of an object or event often stated in years before the present as established by an absolutedaing process such as radiometric dating |
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homologous structure |
anatomical structures in one species that compared to other anatomical structures in another species originated from a single anatomical structure in a common ancestor of the two species |
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vestigial structure |
in an organism that is reduced in size and function and that may have been complete in the organisms ancestor |
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superposition |
a principle that states that younger rocks lie above older rocks if the layers have not been disturbed |
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biogeography |
the study of geographical distribution of living organisms and fossils on earth |
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analogous structor |
one species that is similar in function and appearance but not in evolutionary origin to another anatomical structure in another species |
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phylogeny |
evolutionary history of a species or taxonomic group |
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relative age |
age of an object in relation to the age of other objects |
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convergent evotution |
unrelated species become more similar as they adapt to the same kind of environment |
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Adaptive radiation |
evolutionary pattern in which many species evolve from a single ancestral species |
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artificial selection |
breeding of organisms (by humans) for specific desirable characteristics |
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coevolution |
two or more species that is due too mutual influence often in a way that makes the relationship more mutually benifial |
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divergent evolution |
two or more related but reproductively isolated populations become more and more dissimilar |