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19 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Evolution |
a heritable change in characteristics within a population from one generation to another; the development of a new types of organisms from preexisting types of organisms over time |
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Strata |
layers of rock |
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Natural Selection |
the process by which individuals that are better adapted to their environment survive and reproduce more successfully than less well adapted individuals do; a theory to explain the mechanism of evolution |
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Adaptation |
the process of becoming adapted to an environment; an anatomical, physiological, or behavioral trait that improves an organism's ability to survive and reproduce |
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Fitness |
in evolutionary theory, a measure of individual's hereditary contribution to the next generation |
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Fossil |
the trace or remains of an organism that lived a long time ago, most commonly preserved in sedimentary rock |
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Superposition |
a principal that states that younger rocks lie above older rocks if the layer have not been disturbed |
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Relative Age |
the age of an object in relation to the ages of other objects |
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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 absolute dating process, such as radiometric dating |
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Biogeography |
the study of geographical distribution of living organisms and fossils on earth |
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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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Analogous Structure |
an atomical structure in 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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Vestigial Structure |
a structure in an organism that is reduced in size and function and that may have been complete and functional in the organism's ancestors |
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Phylogeny |
the evolutionary history of a species or taxonomic group; the relationships by ancestry among species or taxonomic group |
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Convergent Evolution |
the process by which unrelated species become more similar as they adapt to the same kind of environment |
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Divergent Evolution |
the process by which 2 or more related but reproductively isolated populations become more and more dissimular |
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Adaptive Radiation |
an evolutionary pattern in which many species evolve from a single ancestral species |
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Artificial Selection |
the selective breeding of organisms (by human) for specific desirable characteristics |
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Coevolution |
the evolution of 2 or more species that is due to mutual influence, often in a way that makes the relationship more mutually beneficial |