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14+15 terms
Question | Answer |
---|---|
biogenesis | living things come from other living things |
spontaneous generation | living things can come from non lviing things. |
radiometrics dating | used to establish the age of materials |
isotope | atoms of the same element that differ in the number of neutrons. |
mass number | total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus |
radioactive decay | nuclei is unstable and so it releases particles or radiant energy or both to become stable. |
radioactive isotopes | isotopes that got through radioactive decay |
half-life | the amount of time it takes for one half of any size sample of an isotope to decay to its stable form. |
microsphere | sphereical shaped structures composed of many protein molecules and organized as a membrane. |
coacervates | collections of droplets composed of molecules of different types. |
ribozyme | RNA molecule that can act as a catalyst and promote a specific chemical reaction |
archaea | related group of unicellular organisms that can survive under very harsh conditions. |
chemosynthesis | the production of carbohydrates through the use of energy from inorganic molecules instead of light |
cyanobacterium | a bacterium that can carry out photosynthesis, such as a blue-green alga |
ozone | a gas molecule that is made up of three oxygen atoms |
endosymbiosis | a mutually beneficial relationship in which one organism lives within another |
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 rock (singular, stratum) |
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 change that improves a population's ability to survive |
fitness | a measurement of the ability of a species to respond to the pressures of natural selection; the ability of individuals to survive to propagate their genes |
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 structures | anatomical structures that share a common ancestry |
analogous structures | in comparisons of different organisms, describes features that are similar in function and appearance but not in structure or origin |
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 |
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 | the evolution of two or more species that is due to mutual influence, often in a way that makes the relationship more mutually beneficial |