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F26 Unit 7 Vocab.
F26 Unit 7 Evolution Vocabulary
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Evolution | Change in the inherited traits of a population over generations. It can occur as heritable variations become more or less common in response to factors such as natural selection or genetic drift. |
| Natural Selection | The process in which individuals with advantageous heritable traits tend to survive and reproduce more successfully in a particular environment. Over generations, those traits can become more common in the population. |
| Speciation | The formation of a new species over time. It can happen when populations become reproductively isolated and accumulate differences through processes such as mutation and natural selection. |
| Homologous Structure | A body structure shared by different species because of common ancestry, even if it serves different functions. Similar underlying anatomy, such as the forelimbs of mammals, can be evidence of evolutionary relationships. |
| Analogous Structure | A body structure in different species that performs a similar function but evolved independently. For example, bird wings and insect wings both support flight, but their different structures do not indicate that the wings came from the same ancestral stru |
| Vestigial Structure | An inherited structure that has been reduced and has little or no function compared with its function in ancestors. It can provide evidence of evolutionary change when compared with related organisms. |
| Embryo | An early stage of development in an animal or plant. Similarities in the embryos of different species can provide evidence that they share a common ancestor. |
| Phylogenetic Tree | A branching diagram that represents proposed evolutionary relationships among organisms. Branch points show where lineages share ancestors, and evidence such as DNA or anatomy can help determine the relationships. |
| Taxonomy | The science of naming and grouping organisms based on shared characteristics and relationships. Classifying organisms using evidence such as DNA can help show how species are related. |
| Gene Pool | All the versions of genes present in a population. A change in the frequency of gene versions across generations is one way to describe evolution in that population. |
| Fitness | An organism’s relative success at surviving and producing offspring in a particular environment. Individuals with traits that improve reproductive success may pass those traits to more offspring. |
| Genetic Drift | A change in the frequency of gene versions caused by chance rather than by a trait’s advantage. Its effects can be especially noticeable in small populations. |
| Adaptive Radiation/Divergent Evolution | An evolutionary process in which a single ancestral species rapidly diversifies into many new species, each adapted to a specific environmental niche or way of life. |
| Convergent Evolution | The independent evolution of similar traits in species that are not closely related, often because they face similar environmental pressures. The similar traits do not necessarily show that the species inherited them from a recent common ancestor. |
| Endosymbiotic Theory | Idea that some organelles in eukaryotic cells, (mitochondria & chloroplast), descended from bacteria that lived inside ancestral cells. Evidence includes similarities between these organelles & bacteria, such as their DNA and method of reproduction. |
| Cladogram | A branching diagram that groups organisms by shared characteristics and represents hypotheses about their relationships. Organisms that share a more recent branch point are inferred to share a more recent common ancestor. |
| Adaptation | An inherited trait that helps organisms survive or reproduce in a particular environment. If the trait provides an advantage, natural selection can make it more common in the population over generations. |
| Descent with modification | The idea that organisms inherit traits from ancestors, while inherited variations accumulate in populations over generations. This explains both shared characteristics among related species and differences that can arise over time. |
| Anatomy | The study of the structures of organisms. Comparing anatomical features across species can reveal similarities that support common ancestry or differences associated with adaptation. |
| Variation | Differences in inherited traits among individuals in a population. Variation can arise through processes such as mutation and meiosis, and it provides the differences on which natural selection can act. |
Created by:
tmsullivanLDHS
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