Chapter 11: Evidence for Evolution

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering the key concepts, scientists, and evidence for evolution from Chapter 11 Honors Biology notes.

Evolution

A change over time in the genetic composition of a population.

Adaptations

Inherited characteristics that increase an organism's fitness in its environment.

Carolus Linnaeus

The founder of taxonomy and developer of binomial nomenclature ($1707$-$1778$).

Binomial Nomenclature

A two-part naming system consisting of a Genus and a species identifier, which must be italicized or underlined.

Taxonomic Levels

The hierarchical classification groups: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species.

Use and Disuse

Lamarck's theory ($1809$) that organisms acquire traits during their lifetime based on whether they use or do not use certain body parts.

Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics

Lamarck's flawed idea that modifications an organism acquires during its life can be passed on to its offspring.

Hutton's Deep Time Concept

The conclusion ($1785$) that Earth is extremely old because geologic processes like mountain formation and weathering work extremely slowly.

Uniformitarianism

Lyell's theory ($1830$) that the geologic processes witnessed today are the same ones that formed Earth millions of years ago.

Malthus's Observation

An economist's theory ($1798$) that human overpopulation and limited resources result in competition because births occur faster than deaths.

Artificial Selection

The result of selective breeding where humans choose individuals with specific traits to mate, seen in dogs, crops, and ornamental flowers.

Natural Selection

The process by which individuals with advantageous traits survive and reproduce at a higher rate; the mechanism of evolution published by Darwin in $1859$.

Darwin’s Finches

A collection of birds from the Galapagos Islands that were similar in size but possessed distinct beak shapes and sizes adapted to different tasks.

Alfred Russell Wallace

A scientist who published a paper on natural selection in $1858$, one year before Darwin published 'On the Origin of Species'.

Evolutionary Fitness

A measure of an individual's ability to survive and produce more offspring based on favorable phenotypes.

Direct Observation

Evidence for evolution seen in real-time, such as insect resistance to DDT, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and the peppered moth's color changes.

Paleontology

The study of fossils, which are remains or traces of organisms from the past found in sedimentary rock.

Transitional forms

Fossilized remains that serve as links between modern species and their ancestors, showing evolutionary changes over time.

Homology

Characteristics in related species that share similar structures due to common ancestry, even if their functions have evolved to differ.

Homologous structures

Anatomical features indicating common ancestry, such as the similar bone structure in the forelimbs of humans, cats, whales, and bats.

Vestigial organs

Structures with little or no current use, representing remnants of ancestors, such as wings on flightless birds or pelvic bones in whales.

Molecular homologies

Similarities in DNA and amino acid sequences; for example, the chimpanzee insulin gene has a $98.4\%$ sequence similarity to humans.

Biogeography

The study of the geographic distribution of species, influenced by factors like continental drift and the supercontinent Pangaea.

Endemic species

A species found at a specific geographic location and nowhere else in the world, such as the marine iguanas of the Galapagos.

RNA polymerase complex mutations

One of the two specific genetic changes observed in E. coli during evolution experiments at $42.2\,^\circ\text{C}$ to enable heat survival.