Evolution Vocabulary

Change over time: the process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms

• Adaptation

• Evolution

• Genetic Drift

• Speciation

Structure that is inherited from ancestors but which has lost much or all of its original function

• Vestigial Structure

• Homologous Structure

• Analogous Structure

• Fossil

Formation of a new species

• Convergent Evolution

• Divergent Evolution

• Phylogeny

• Speciation

The evolutionary history of lineage

• Phylogeny

• Speciation

• Evolution

• Genetic Drift

System of naming and classifying organisms base on shared characteristics and universal rules

• Gradualism

• Taxonomy

• Phylogeny

• Natural Selection

Distinctive fossil that is use to compare the relative ages of fossils

• Fossil

• Evolution

• Vestigial Structure

• Index Fossil

Method of determining the age of a fossil by comparing its placement with that of fossils in other rock layers

• Analogous Structure

• Fossil

• Relative Dating

• Absolute Dating

Structures that are similar in different species of common ancestors

• Homologous Structures

• Convergent Evolution

• Analogous Structures

• Speciation

Method of determining the age of a sample from the amount of a radioactive isotope to the nonradioactive isotope of the same element in a sample

• Speciation

• Radiometric Dating

• Relative Dating

• Gradualism

Preserved remains of, traces of, ancient organisms

• Fossil

• Index Fossil

• Natural Selection

• Analogous Structure