Biology-Evolution Vocabulary

Adaptation

A trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce

Analogous structure

Body parts that share a common function, but not structure

Artificial selection

Breeding organisms with specific traits in order to produce offspring with identical traits.

Biogeography

Study of past and present distribution of organisms

Cladistics

classification based on common ancestry

Cladogram

Diagram that shows the evolutionary relationships among a group of organisms

fitness

Ability of an organism to survive and reproduce in its environment

Heritability

the ability of a trait to be passed down from one generation to the next

Paleontology

the study of fossils

Phylogeny

Evolutionary history of a species

Pseudogenes

genes that have become inactivated by mutations

Species

A group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring.

Taxonomy

The scientific study of how living things are classified

Transitional form

Fossils or organisms that show the intermediate states between an ancestral form and that of its descendants

Vestigial structure

remnant of a structure that may have had an important function in a species' ancestors, but has no clear function in the modern species.