Evolution Vocabulary

Evolution Vocabulary

All life on Earth shares a common ancestor

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​Evolution

A fossil is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past era.

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​Fossil

A representation of time based on the rock record of Earth.

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Geologic Time Scale

a simulation of conditions on the early Earth testing the idea that life, or more specifically organic molecules, could have formed by nothing more than simple chemical reactions.

Miller-Urey Experiment

An organism that make it's own food

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Autotroph

​An organism that relies on autotrophs and other organisms for food

Heterotroph

Some eukaryotic cell organelles, such as mitochondria and plastids, evolved from free-living prokaryotes

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Endosymbiotic Theory

Evolution of groups is big and makes major changes.

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Macro Evolution

Rapid increase in the number of species with a common ancestor

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Adaptive Radition

Occurs when species occupy similar ecological niches and adapt in similar ways in response to similar selective pressures.​

Convergent Evolution

accumulation of differences between closely related populations within a species, sometimes leading to speciation.

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Divergent Evolution

The influence of closely associated species on each other in their evolution.

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Coevolution

​Similar physical features in organisms that share a common ancestor, but the features serve completely different functions.

Homologous Structures

Features of different species that are similar in function but not necessarily in structure and which do not derive from a common ancestral feature.

Analogous Structures

Structures that have no apparent function and appear to be residual parts from a past ancestor.

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Vestigial Structures

The process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.

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Natural Selection

Anything that increases an organism’s chance to survive and reproduce.

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Adaption

A structural adaptation that enables one species to resemble another species.

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Mimicry

a structural adaptation that allows a species to blend in with its surroundings.

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Camouflage

A proclivity toward a certain behavior or thought pattern.

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Physiological Adaptations

Favors one of the extreme variations of a trait.

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Directional Selection

Favors average individuals in a population.

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Stabilizing Selection

New gene can be added to the population by errors in DNA copying.

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Mutation

Favors individuals with either extreme of a trait but intermediate individuals have a disadvantage.

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Disruptive Selection

Collectively, all of the alleles of the population’s genes.

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Gene Pool

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Allelic Frequency

The percentage of any specific allele in the gene pool.

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Allelic Frequency

New genes can be added to the population by errors in DNA copying.

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Mutations

When gene frequencies are changed by random events in a isolated population.

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Genetic Drift

The transport of genes by traveling individuals.

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Gene Flow

The way in which a reduction and subsequent increase in a population's size affects the distribution of genetic variation among its individuals.​

Bottleneck Effect

The reduction in genomic variability that occurs when a small group of individuals becomes separated from a larger population.

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Founder Effect

The identification by humans of desirable traits in plants and animals, and the steps taken to enhance and perpetuate those traits in future generations.

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Artificial Selection

The evolution of a new species.

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Speciation

Species occur in different areas, which are often separated by a physical barrier such as a river or mountain range.

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Geographic Isolation

Species occur in the same area, but they occupy different habitats and rarely encounter each other.

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Ecological Isolation

Species reproduce in different seasons or at different times of the day.

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Temporal Isolation

Idea that species originate through a gradual change of adaptations (longer than 10,000 years)​.

Gradualism

Idea that species originate in rapid bursts (10,000 years or less) with long periods of genetic equilibrium in between​.

Punctuated Equilibrium