7th Grade Final Exam Review

Flashcards created to assist students in reviewing important vocabulary and concepts for their 7th-grade science exam.

Natural Selection

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

Vestigial Structures

Structures inherited from ancestors that no longer serve a clear function in the organism.

Ecosystem

A biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.

Producers

Organisms that create their own food through photosynthesis, primarily plants.

Consumers

Organisms that obtain energy by consuming other organisms.

Decomposers

Organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms, returning nutrients to the soil.

Symbiotic Relationship

A close and long-term interaction between two different species.

Asexual Reproduction

The process of reproduction that involves only one parent and produces offspring identical to the parent.

Sexual Reproduction

The process of reproduction that involves the combination of genetic material from two parents.

Genotype

The genetic constitution of an individual; the alleles that an organism carries.

Phenotype

The observable physical or physiological traits of an organism, determined by genotype and environment.

Chromosomes

Structures within cells that contain DNA and carry genetic information.

Alleles

Different versions of a gene that determine specific traits.

Punnett Square

A diagram used to predict the genotype and phenotype combinations in genetic crosses.

Mutation

A change in the DNA sequence that can lead to variations in a trait.

Carrying Capacity

The maximum population size of a species that an environment can sustain indefinitely.

Biotic Factors

The living components of an ecosystem, such as plants and animals.

Abiotic Factors

The non-living components of an ecosystem, such as climate and soil.