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Unit 7
AP Biology Unit 7 Vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Evolutionary Fitness | Evolutionary fitness is how well a species is able to survive and reproduce in its environment. ... Sexual selection is when a species has a trait it finds desirable, resulting in individuals with that trait reproducing more. |
| Natural Selection | Natural selection is the process through which populations of living organisms adapt and change. Individuals in a population are naturally variable, meaning that they are all different in some ways. This variation means that some individuals have traits b |
| Selective Pressure | In evolutionary theory, the effect on survival of a species of the sum of all factors, physical and behavioral, inherent and environmental; especially as an inherited trait may marginally effect survival under the influence of these factors. |
| Adaptive Radiation | Adaptive radiation refers to the adaptation (via genetic mutation) of an organism which enables it to successfully spread, or radiate, into other environments. Adaptive radiation leads to speciation and is only used to describe living organisms. |
| Biological Species Concept | The Biological Species Concept defines a species taxon as a group of organisms that can successfully interbreed and produce fertile offspring. According to that concept, a species' integrity is maintained by interbreeding within a species as well as by re |
| Divergent Evolution | Divergent evolution is commonly defined as what occurs when two groups of the same species evolve different traits within those groups in order to accommodate for differing environmental and social pressures. |
| Gradualism | gradualism is a theory that assumes large morphological changes in organisms occur via a number of smaller step over a number of years. ... Those who support phyletic gradualism endorse a slow, steady change through time which leads to drastic morphologic |
| Punctuated Equilibrium | Punctuated equilibrium is a term that refers to the evolutionary changes of plants and animals in a relatively static way. In contrast to the concept that life forms change slowly over time in response to their environment, punctuated equilibrium is a the |
| Reproductive Isolation | the inability of a species to breed successfully with related species due to geographical, behavioral, physiological, or genetic barriers or differences. |
| Speciation | Speciation is how a new kind of plant or animal species is created. Speciation occurs when a group within a species separates from other members of its species and develops its own unique characteristics. 5 - 12+ Biology, Geography, Physical Geography. |
| Ecosystems | An ecosystem is a community of animals, plants, micro-organisms, non-living things and their shared environment. Find out about energy transfer, niches and competition in ecosystems. Biology. Life on Earth. |
| Extinction | Extinction is the dying out of a species. |
| Niche | In ecology, the term “niche” describes the role an organism plays in a community. A species' niche encompasses both the physical and environmental conditions it requires (like temperature or terrain) and the interactions it has with other species (like pr |
| Species Diversity | Species diversity is the number of different species that are represented in a given community (a dataset). ... Meanings of species diversity may include species richness, taxonomic or phylogenetic diversity, and/or species evenness. |
| RNA World Hypothesis | The RNA world hypothesis suggests that life on Earth began with a simple RNA molecule that could copy itself without help from other molecules. DNA, RNA, and proteins are central to life on Earth. ... It can drive chemical reactions, like proteins, and ca |
| Convergent Evolution | Convergent evolution is when different organisms independently evolve similar traits. For example, sharks and dolphins look relatively similar despite being entirely unrelated |
| Bottleneck Effect | A population bottleneck is an event that drastically reduces the size of a population. The bottleneck may be caused by various events, such as an environmental disaster, the hunting of a species to the point of extinction, or habitat destruction that resu |
| Founder Effect | The founder effect is the reduction in genetic variation that results when a small subset of a large population is used to establish a new colony. The new population may be very different from the original population, both in terms of its genotypes and ph |
| Genetic Drift | Genetic drift describes random fluctuations in the numbers of gene variants in a population. Genetic drift takes place when the occurrence of variant forms of a gene, called alleles, increases and decreases by chance over time. These variations in the pre |
| Mutation | A mutation is a change in a DNA sequence. Mutations can result from DNA copying mistakes made during cell division, exposure to ionizing radiation, exposure to chemicals called mutagens, or infection by viruses. |
| Population | A population is defined as a group of individuals of the same species living and interbreeding within a given area. Members of a population often rely on the same resources, are subject to similar environmental constraints, and depend on the availability |
| Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium | The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is a principle stating that the genetic variation in a population will remain constant from one generation to the next in the absence of disturbing factors. ... For instance, mutations disrupt the equilibrium of allele frequ |
| Migration | Migration is a pattern of behavior in which animals travel from one habitat to another in search of food, better conditions, or reproductive needs |
| Null Hypothesis | An assumption or proposition where an observed difference between two samples of a statistical population is purely accidental and not due to systematic causes. |
| Fossil | Fossils are the preserved remains, or traces of remains, of ancient organisms. Fossils are not the remains of the organism itself! ... A fossil can preserve an entire organism or just part of one. Bones, shells, feathers, and leaves can all become fossils |
| Isotope | Isotopes are different forms of the same element that have the same number of protons, but a different number of neutrons. ... These two alternate forms of carbon are isotopes. Some isotopes are unstable and will lose protons, other subatomic particles, o |
| Morphology | Morphology, in biology, the study of the size, shape, and structure of animals, plants, and microorganisms and of the relationships of their constituent parts. The term refers to the general aspects of biological form and arrangement of the parts of a pla |
| Vestigial Structure | Structures that have no apparent function and appear to be residual parts from a past ancestor are called vestigial structures. Examples of vestigial structures include the human appendix, the pelvic bone of a snake, and the wings of flightless birds. |
| Cladogram | a branching diagram showing the cladistic relationship between a number of species. |
| Lineage | Lineages are sequences of biological entities connected by ancestry-descent relationships (Hull 1980). A sequence containing myself, my father, and my grandfather is a lineage because it is a single, direct line of descent among organisms. But biologists |
| Molecular Clock | The molecular clock, explains Blair Hedges, is a tool used to calculate the timing of evolutionary events. ... Evolutionary biologists can use this information to deduce how species evolve, and to fix the date when two species diverged on the evolutionary |
| Out-Group | An outgroup is used in phylogenetic analyses to figure out where the root of the tree should be placed (and sometimes which character state is ancestral on the tree). An outgroup is a lineage that falls outside the clade being studied but is closely relat |
| Phylogenetic Tree | A phylogenetic tree, also known as a phylogeny, is a diagram that depicts the lines of evolutionary descent of different species, organisms, or genes from a common ancestor |
| Phylogeny | Phylogeny, the history of the evolution of a species or group, especially in reference to lines of descent and relationships among broad groups of organisms. |
Created by:
ChrisZam
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