Unit 8 Evolution Vocabulary

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Reproductive Isolation

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When the members of two populations can no longer interbreed and produce fertile offspring.

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Geographical Isolation

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Physical separation and isolation of a population from another by land bridges, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other land masses and natural disasters.

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Behavioral Isolation

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Separation and isolation of a population from another due to differences in behavior.

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Temporal Isolation

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Separation and isolation of a population from another due to different reproductive times

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Adaptive Radiation

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One species of a small group of species evolves into several different forms that become less and less like each other as time passes.

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Convergent Evolution

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Unrelated species start to resemble each other more as time passes. Change due needing to meet environmental demands.

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Coevolution

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When two species evolve in response to changes in each other over time.

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Theory

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A proposed explanation for something in the natural world.

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Aleksandr Oparin

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Hypothesized that the origins of all life came from nonliving chemical substances which spontaneously formed in Earth's early atmosphere, then combined to make more complex chemicals until, eventually, living cells were formed.

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Prokaryotic

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The first cells on Earth. Single cell organisms with no nucleus of membrane bound organelles.

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Endosymbiotic Theory

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Eukaryotic cells formed form a symbiosis among several different prokaryotic organisms.

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Natural Selection

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The process in which individuals that are better suited to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully. "Survival of the fittest."

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Gene pool

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All the genes, including differents alleles, that are present in a population.

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Population

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All of the same species in one area.

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Genetic diversity

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The total sum of all genetic information carried by all organisms living on Earth.

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Relative Frequency

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The number of times that allele occurs in a gene pool.

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Evolution

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Any change in the relative frequency of alleles in a population.

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Gene shuffling

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Occurs during the production of gametes. When you do not look exactly like either of your parents due to the independent assortment of alleles that occurs during meiosis.

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Evolutionary fitness

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An organism's success in passing genes to the next generation.

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Adaptation

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Any trait that increases an individual's chance of survival and reproduction.

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Directional Selection

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When individuals with one of the extreme forms of a trait has a better fitness that other forms other forms of the trait, the range of phenotypes shifts as the individuals with lower fitness die out.

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Stabilizing Selection

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When the moderate form of a trait outcompetes the two extremes.

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Disruptive Selection

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When individuals of both extreme forms of a trian outcompete the middle/ moderat form.

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Founder Effect

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A situation in which the allele frequencies change as a result of the migration of a small subgroup of a population.

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Genetic Drift

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When an allele becomes more or less common simply by chance.

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Random Mating

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The theory that every member of the population must have an equal opportunity to produce offspring.

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Homologous structures

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Body structures that are found in similar patterns in many organisms.

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Vestigial Structure

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Body parts that have no apparent function, but resemble useful body parts of another organism.

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Cladograms

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The gram that shows the evolutionary relationships among organisms.

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Analogous Structures

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A structure that has the same function but different construction and was NOT inherited from a common ancestor.

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Fossil Record

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The chronological order of fossils found by comparing older rock layers with fossils from newer rock layers.

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Geographic Distribution

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Similar animals in different locations were the product of different lines of evolutionary descent. Indicates that these animals have common ancestral species

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Embryonic Development

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When embryos and fetuses of different species show similar characteristics which grow and change into pre- programmed organisms as gestation continues.

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Biochemistry

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The scientific evidence of degrees of relativity between different species.