Chapter 5: Changes in Nature - Life Science

Vocabulary flashcards covering key definitions, evolutionary concepts, creationist perspectives, dating methods, and fossil terms from Life Science Chapter 5.

Fossils

The preserved remains of plants and animals from the past.

Mineralized fossil

A fossil type exemplified by preserved remains such as T. rex teeth found in a fossil graveyard.

Carbon-14 dating

A rock and fossil dating method that can be used only for "young" fossils.

Homologous structures

Body parts that share similar bone structures (such as a whale's flipper and a bat's wing), interpreted by evolutionists as evidence of a common ancestor and by creationists as evidence of a common designer.

Theory of acquired characteristics

The idea that organisms can gain new traits during their lifetimes and pass on those traits to their offspring.

Modern synthesis

The blending of Darwin's theories of natural selection with genetics and mutations.

Fixity of species

The idea that species do not change over time.

Survival of the fittest

The concept that organisms with traits best suited to their environment will survive and reproduce.

Uniformitarianism

The idea that Earth's physical processes operate at the same rate in the present as they did in the past.

Common ancestor

An organism represented by the connection points where evolutionary family tree branches join, from which descendant organisms are proposed to have evolved.

Created kinds

Different groups of organisms that God created to be distinct and fully formed from each other, possessing DNA variation that allows them to produce many species.

Transitional forms

Hypothetical organisms possessing intermediate body parts connecting different kinds of organisms, which are largely absent from the fossil record.

Vestigial structures

Organs or body structures once thought to be useless evolutionary leftovers (such as tonsils, the appendix, the pituitary gland, and the thymus gland) that have later been found to have functional roles.

Dinosaur death pose

A fossil posture in which an animal's neck and tail are severely arched over its back, observed in drowned animals and interpreted as evidence of burial during the worldwide Genesis Flood.

Relative dating

A dating principle used to establish the age sequence of rock layers and fossils, such as concluding that a fossil situated above an igneous layer dated at $50\text{ million years}$ is younger than $50\text{ million years}$.