Term | Definition |
Genetic Drift | An evolutionary mechanism in which allele frequencies change in a population |
Recombination | Another source of heritable variation that occurs for two main reasons: independent assortment and crossing-over. |
Gene Flow | When the genes of one population flow to a different population. |
Fossils | What are preserved traces or remains of living organisms for the past |
Vestigial Structures | Structures on an organism are degenerated and, or are nonfunctional structures |
Homologous Structures | Structures that are similar in related organisms which were inherited from a common ancestor |
Analogous Structures | Structure that is the same in function but different in structure, and evolved independently |
Molecular Homologies | Evidence of evolution that has similar stretch of genetic material and/or proteins between different organisms |
Biogeography | This is the study of the distribution of species, organisms, and ecosystems through geological time |
Stabilizing Selection | most common form of natural selection in which organisms with extreme expressions of a trait are removed. Can be expressed on a graph |
Directional Selection | Shift of population toward an extreme version of a beneficial trait. Can be expressed on a graph |
Disruptive Selection | Process by which individuals with average traits are removed, creating two populations with extreme traits. Can be expressed on a graph. |
Natural Selection | Process that results in the adaptation of an organism to its environment by means of selectively reproducing changes in its genotype. |
Evolution | The process through which species change over time. |
Species | Groups of actually or potentially interbreeding populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups. |
Adaptation | Process by which an animal or plant species becomes fitted to its environment; it is the result of natural selection's acting upon heritable variation. |
Taxonomy | A hierarchical system for classifying and identifying organism |
Common Ancestor | The most recent ancestral form or species from which two different species evolved. |