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Evolution 2
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Speciation | The process of one species giving rise to another |
Species | a group of organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring |
geographic isolation | A population of organisms that is separated from exchanging genetic material with other organisms of the same species by a physical barrier. A common way for speciation to begin. |
Reproductive isolation | The inability of a species to breed successfully with related species due to behavioral and physiological barriers or differences. |
Lamark's Theory of Evolution | Individual organisms altered their behavior in response to environmental change. Their changed behavior, in turn, modified their organs, and their offspring inherited those "improved" structures. |
Darwin's Theory of Evolution | All species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. |
Evidence of Ancestry | Genetic data, embryology and vestigial structures are all used to support a common origin. |
Comparative Embryology | The study comparing embryo development across species. |
Vestigial structure | an anatomical feature that no longer seems to have a purpose in the current form of an organism of the given species. It may have performed some important function in the organism at one point in the past. |
Homologous structure | An organ or bone that appears in different animals, underlining anatomical commonalities demonstrating descent from a common ancestor. |
Genetic drift | a mechanism of evolution in which allele frequencies of a population change over generations due to chance |
mimicry | structural adaptation that allows one species to resemble another species. |
adaptation | a beneficial mutation that increases and organism's fitness |
fitness | an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in an environment |
coevolution | two or more species evolve together |
convergent evolution | process by which two or more species become more similar as they adapt to the same kind of environment |
divergent evolution | process by which two or more species become more and more dissimilar |
analogous structure | structures in more than one species that have a similar appearance and function but different embryological origin |