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Chapter 15 Vocab
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Evolution | A heritable change in the characteristics within a population from one generation to the next; the development of new types of organisms from preexisting types of organisms over time |
| Strata | Layers of rocks |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Fitness | In evolutionary theory, a measure of an individual’s hereditary contribution to the next generation |
| Fossil | The trace or remains of an organism that lived long ago, most commonly preserved in sedimentary rock |
| Superposition | A principle that states that younger rocks lie above older rocks if the layers have not been disturbed |
| Relative age | The age of an object in relation to the ages of other objects |
| 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 |
| Biogeography | The study of the geographical distribution of living organisms and fossils on Earth |
| 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 |
| Analogous structure | An anatomical structure in one species that is similar in function and appearance, but not in evolutionary origin, to another anatomical structure in another species |
| 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 |
| Phylogeny | The evolutionary history of a species or taxonomic group; the relationships by ancestry among species or taxonomic groups |
| Convergent evolution | The process by which unrelated species become more similar as they adapt to the same kind of environment |
| Divergent evolution | The process by which two or more related but reproductively isolated populations become more and more dissimilar |
| Adaptive radiation | An evolutionary pattern in which many species evolve from a single ancestral species |
| Artificial selection | The selective breeding of organisms (by humans) for specific desirable characteristics |
| Coevolution | When two or more species have evolved adaptations to each other’s influence |
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