Question | Answer |
Evolution | A heritable change in the characteristics within a population from one generation to the next |
Autotroph | An organism that produces its own nutrients from inorganic substances or from the environment instead of consuming other organisms |
Heterotroph | An organism that obtains organic food molecules by eating other organisms or their byproducts and that cannot synthesize organic compounds from inorganic materials |
Overproduction | When more offspring can be produced than can survive to maturity |
Genetic Variation | When individuals have different traits |
Struggle To Survive | When individuals must compete with one another to survive, thus causing adaptations over time |
Differential Reproduction | Populations begin to differ as they become adapted to different environments |
Decent With Modification | All species descended from one or a few original kinds of life |
Allopatric Speciation | When species arise as a result of geographic isolation |
Sympatric Speciation | When two sub populations become re-productively isolated within the same geographic area |
Species | A group of organisms that are closely related and can mate to produce fertile offspring |
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 re-productively isolated populations become more and more dissimilar |
Co-evolution | The evolution of two or more species that is due to mutual influence, often in a way that makes the relationship more mutually beneficial |
Disruptive Selection | When two extreme forms of a trait are selected |
Stabilizing Selection | When the average form of a trait is favored and becomes more common |
Directional Selection | When the most extreme form of a trait is favored and becomes more common |
Radioactive Isotope | An isotope that has an unstable nucleus and that emits radiation |
Half-life | The time required for half of a sample of a radioactive isotope to break down by radioactive decay to form a daughter isotope |
Cladogram | A diagram that's based on patterns of shared and derived traits and that shows the evolutionary relationships between groups of organisms |
Gene Flow | The movement of genes into or out of a population due to interbreeding |
Gradualism | A model of evolution in which gradual change over a long period of time leads to biological diversity |
Catastrophism | The idea that sudden geologic catastrophes caused the extinction of large groups of organisms at certain points in the past |
Punctuated Equilibrium | A model of evolution in which short periods of drastic change in species, including mass extinctions and rapid speciation, are separated by long periods of little or no change |