ANTH 100 Exam #1

Archaeology

The study of past societies and their cultures, especially the material remains of the past, such as tools, food remains, and places where people lived.

Cultural Anthropology

The study of cultures of human beings and their very recent past. Traditional cultural anthropologists study cultures and present their observations in an ethnography.

Linguistics

The study of language, especially how language is structured, the evolution of language, and the social and cultural contexts for language.

Biological Anthropology

The study of human evolution and variation, both past and current.

Evolution

Change on allele frequency within a population over time.

Creationism

God formed the world and all its life forms.

Uniformitarianism

Theory that natural processes that took place in the past are still at work today.

Catastrophism

Doctrine that catastrophic events, not evolution, lead to geological changes throughout earth's history.

Taxonomy

Classification of organisms into a system that reflects degrees of relatedness.

Natural Selection

The process by which some organisms, with features that enable them to adapt to the environment, preferentially survive and reproduce, thereby increasing the frequency of those features in the population.

Homology

existence of shared ancestry between structures or genes in different taxa

Homoplasy

trait gained or lost independently in separate lineages over the course of evolution, not evidence of common ancestry.

Blending Inheritance

an outdates and disputed theory that the phenotype of an offspring was a uniform blend of the parents' phenotypes.

Laws of Segregation

Particles (or genes) for traits appear separately in the sex cells of parents and are then reunited in an offspring.

Law of Independent Assortment

Particles (or genes) for different traits are sorted (and passed on) independently of one another.

Dominant

a dominant allele masks the effect of other alleles for trait; may also be used in reference to dominant traits or dominant phenotypes.

Recessive

a recessive allele is masked by a dominant allele for a trait; may also be used in reference to recessive traits or recessive phenotype.

Genotype

the specific alleles an organism has for a trait.

Phenotype

The physical expression of an organism's genotype for a trait.

Homozygous dominant

two dominant alleles for the trait (PP)

Homozygous recessive

two recessive alleles for the trait (pp)

Heterozygous

one of each variation (Pp)

Complete dominance

the effect of one allele in a heterozygous genotype completely masks the effect of the other.

The Evolutionary Synthesis

A unified theory of evolution that combines genetics with natural selection.

Mutation

A random change in a gene or chromosome creating a new trait that may be advantageous, deleterious, or neutral in its effects on the organism.

Linkage

Refers to the inheritance, as a unit, of individual genes closely located on a chromosome, an exception to the law of independent assortment.

Codominance

Refers to two different alleles that are equally dominant; both are fully expressed in a heterozygote's phenotype; contributions of both alleles are visible in the phenotype.

Incomplete Dominance

Phenotype of the heterozygous genotype is distinct from and often intermediate to the phenotypes of the homozygous genotypes.

Polygenic

Refers to one phenotypic trait that is affected by two or more genes.

Microevolution

Small scale evolution, such as changes in allele frequency, that occurs from one generation to the next.

Nucleotide

set of linked phosphate, sugar, and nitrogen base molecules in DNA; side of ladder are phosphates and sugars, and the rungs of the ladder are made of nitrogen base.

Base Points

adenine only complements thymine; guanine only goes with cytosine.

Gene

section of DNA that codes for a particular trait.

Allele

an alternate version of a gene.

Somatic cells

body cells; form in the organs, tissues, and other parts of an organism's body.

Gametes (germ cells)

sexual reproductive cells, ova and sperm, that have a haploid number of chromosomes and that can unite with a gamete of the opposite type to a form a new organism.

Mitosis

cell doubles its parts then splits in two and the two daughter cells are genetically identical to each other and to the original cell; cell division that creates two identical daughter cells.

Diploid

two sets of chromosomes.

Meiosis

reduces genetic constitution by half; eggs and sperm contain half the amount of genetic material as ordinary cells.

Haploid

a cell that has a single set of unpaired chromosomes; half of the number of chromosomes as a diploid cell.

Crossing-over

the process by which homologous chromosomes partially wrap around each other and exchange genetic information during meiosis.

Stability (DNA)

faithfully preserves genetic message

Replicability (DNA)

ensures inheritance

Hardy-Weinberg equation

a mathematical model in population genetics that reflects the relationship between frequencies of alleles and of genotypes. Determines whether a population is undergoing evolutionary change.

Balanced Polymorphism

Situation in which selection maintains two or more phenotypes for a specific gene in a population.

Directional Selection

Selection for one allele over the other alleles, causing the allele frequencies to shift in one direction.

Stabilizing Selection

Selection against the extremes of the phenotypic distribution, decreasing the genetic diversity for this trait in the population.

Disruptive Selection

Selection for both extremes of the phenotypic distribution; may eventually lead to a speciation event.

Population

All inter-breeding individuals of a species in a local area.

Population Genetics

The study of evolutionary forces that are responsible for changes in gene frequency within a population.

Macroevolution

large-scale evolutionary changes that take place over long periods of time

genetic drift

A change in the allele frequency of a population as a result of chance events rather than natural selection.

Genetic Bottleneck

Substantial loss of genetic diversity (as in many founder effect situations)

Founder Effect

Specific type of genetic drift that occurs when a subset of a larger population founds the next generation due to substantial population loss or population movement.

Gene Flow

Exchange of genes between two populations.

Endogamous

population in which individuals breed only with other members of the population.

Exogamous

population in which individuals breed only with nonmembers of their population.

Mendelian Traits

They are discrete, controlled by alleles at one genetic locus, their phenotypic expressions do not overlap.

Polygenic traits

they are continuous, controlled by alleles are more than one genetic locus, each locus making a contribution (additive)

Hybrid

the offspring resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms of different breeds, varieties, species or genera through sexual reproduction.

Ring species

species with a geographic distribution that forms a ring and overlaps at the ends.

Chronospecies

different stages in the same evolving lineage that existed at different points in time.

Species

a group of related organisms that can interbreed and produce fertile, viable offspring.

Speciation

a lineage-splitting event that produces two or more separate species.

reproductive isolation

Separation of species or populations so that they cannot interbreed and produce fertile offspring

cospeciation

speciation in parallel for two species that are very closely associated.

Phylogeny

the evolutionary relationships of a group of organisms

Apomorphic (derived) Traits

characteristics that have changed for a particular clade

Cladistic/Evolutionary/ Phylogenetic Classification of Primates

Uses anatomical and genetic evidence to establish ancestral-descendant relationships that link clades

Evolutionary/Molecular Clock

the rate of accumulation of genetic differences can be estimated by comparison between many lineages of primates and mammals

Extinction

A term that typically describes a species that no longer has any known living individuals

Charles Darwin

English natural scientist who formulated a theory of evolution by natural selection (1809-1882)

Lamack

French naturalist who proposed the evolution resulted from the inheritance of acquired characteristics (1744-1829)

Alfred Russel Wallce

English naturalist who proposed, independently of Charles Darwin, the concept of natural selection as a mechanism for evolution and as a way to explain the great variety of living things

Thomas Hunt Morgan

Bred fruit flies, and supported the theory of chromosomal inheritance by finding that a specific gene is carried on a specific chromosome

Cuvier

catastrophism: believed that the extinction of species was caused by catastrophic events such as floods

Mendel

Father of Genetics; responsible of the Law of Inheritance

Buffon

Species shared ancestors rather than arising separately

Gene pool

Combined genetic information of all the members of a particular population