Ch 10, 11, And 12 Vocab Bio

Front 1

Evolution-

Back 1

change of a species over time; process of biological change by which descendents come to differ from their ancestors

Front 2

Species-

Back 2

group of organisms so similar to one another that they can breed and produce fertile offspring

Front 3

Fossil-

Back 3

trace of an organism from the past

Front 4

Catastrophism-

Back 4

theory that states that natural disasters such as floods and volcanic eruptions shaped earth’s landforms and caused extinction of some species

Front 5

Natural selection-

Back 5

mechanism by which individuals that have inherited beneficial adaptations produce more offspring on average than do other individuals

Front 6

Population-

Back 6

all of the individuals of a species that live in the same area

Front 7

Biogeography-

Back 7

study of the distribution of organisms around the world

Front 8

Paleontology-

Back 8

study of fossils of extinct organisms

Front 9

Gene pool-

Back 9

collection of alleles found in all of the individuals of a population

Front 10

Allele frequency-

Back 10

proportion of one allele, compared with all the alleles for that trait, in the gene pool

Front 11

Coevolution-

Back 11

process in which two or more species evolve in response to changes in each other

Front 12

Extinction-

Back 12

elimination of a species from Earth

Front 13

Isotope-

Back 13

form of an element that has the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons as another element

Front 14

Half-life-

Back 14

amount of time it takes for half of the isotope in a sample to decay into its product isotope

Front 15

Index fossil-

Back 15

fossil of an organism that existed during only specific spans of geologic time across large geographic areas

Front 16

Geologic time scale-

Back 16

time scale representing the history of Earth

Front 17

Era-

Back 17

second largest unit of geologic time, lasting tens to hundreds of millions of years and consisting of two or more periods.

Front 18

Endosymbiosis-

Back 18

ecological relationship in which one organism lives within the body of another

Front 19

Anthropoid-

Back 19

humanlike primate

Front 20

Bipedal-

Back 20

animal that walks on two legs