Genetics Study Guide #3

Front 1

selection

Back 1

the action or fact of carefully choosing someone or something as being the best or most suitable

Front 2

selection pressure

Back 2

an agent of differential mortality or fertility that tends to make a population change genetically.

Front 3

frequency

Back 3

the rate at which something occurs or is repeated over a particular period of time or in a given sample

Front 4

extinct

Back 4

(of a species, family, or other larger group) having no living members

Front 5

adaptation

Back 5

the action or process of adapting or being adapted

Front 6

predator

Back 6

an animal that naturally preys on others

Front 7

prey

Back 7

an animal that is hunted and killed by another for food

Front 8

structural adaptation

Back 8

physical features of an organism like the bill on a bird or the fur on a bear.

Front 9

behavioral adaptation

Back 9

Behavioral adaptations are the things organisms do to survive. For example, bird calls and migration are behavioral adaptations.

Front 10

tundra

Back 10

a vast, flat, treeless Arctic region of Europe, Asia, and North America in which the subsoil is permanently frozen.

Front 11

species

Back 11

A group of organisms whose members have the same structural traits and can breed with one another.

Front 12

strategy

Back 12

a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.

Front 13

parameters

Back 13

a numerical or other measurable factor forming one of a set that defines a system or sets the conditions of its operation.

Front 14

naturalist

Back 14

A person who studies the plants, animals, and environment of an area.

Front 15

hypothesis

Back 15

A prediction of what will happen between an independent (manipulated) variable and a dependent (responding) variable.

Front 16

geologist

Back 16

A scientist who studies the origin, history, and structureof Earth.

Front 17

fossils

Back 17

The remains of living organisms preserved in rocks in Earth’s crust.

Front 18

natural selection

Back 18

The differences in survival and reproduction among members of a population as a result of selection pressure.

Front 19

teosinte

Back 19

The wild ancestor of corn.

Front 20

Maize

Back 20

Another name for domesticated corn.

Front 21

erosion

Back 21

The loss of soil through the actions of water and wind.

Front 22

native

Back 22

a person born in a specified place or associated with a place by birth, whether subsequently resident there or not.

Front 23

monoculture

Back 23

Using the land for the growing of only one crop.

Front 24

diverse environment

Back 24

having many different types of organisms that depend on one another for survival.

Front 25

prairie

Back 25

Large area of grasslands usually located in the interior of continents, a biome with open fields and deep- rooted grasses.

Front 26

half-life

Back 26

The time it takes for half of an amount of a radioactive element to change into a new stable element.

Front 27

radioactive dating

Back 27

A method of dating fossils by measuring the amount of a radioactive element in the fossils and in the rocks in which the fossils are found.

Front 28

relative dating

Back 28

Determining which fossil is older than another by comparing the relative positions of the rock layers in which they are found.

Front 29

dating

Back 29

Determining the age of sedimentary rocks or fossils.

Front 30

sedimentary rocks

Back 30

Rocks formed from the compression and cementing together of layers of sediment deposited in oceans, lakes,and swamps.

Front 31

sediment

Back 31

Small, solid pieces of material that come from rocks orliving organisms.

Front 32

fossil record

Back 32

All the fossils ever found.

Front 33

paleontologist

Back 33

Scientists who study fossils to learn about living things that existed in the past.

Front 34

evolution

Back 34

The change in the frequencies of genes in a population over time.