Bio Anthropology Midterm Terms

Punnett Square

A diagram used in genetics to predict the possible genotypes and phenotypes of offspring from a cross between their parents.

Peppered Moth

An example of evolution by natural selection. The moths changed from light-colored to black-colored due to the fact that their environment was getting darker and darker by pollution.

Meiosis

A type of cell division that results in four daughter cells, each with half the number of chromosomes of the parent cell.

Cultural, Developmental, and acclamatory adaptations

High Altitude

People can experience stress on accessing oxygen, that would lead to bigger chest cavities and larger chests.

Proteins

Consists of amino acids.

Somatic Cells

Any cell of a living organism other than the reproductive cells.

Gametes

Specialized sex cells found in ogranisms that reproduce sexually

Scientific Method

There are various steps that are in the method.

1. Make an observation

2. Ask a question

3. Develop a hypothesis

4. Test to falsitfy the hypothesis

5. Repeat if needed

6. Record Results

Mendalian

Herditary Characterisitcs are controlled by particulate unit facotrs that exist in pairs in individual organisms and are either recessive or dominant.

Polygenic

Traits that are determined by two or more genes such as height or skin color.

Bipedalism

The condition of walking on two legs. It occured around 6 million years ago.

Adaptive Radiation

A rapid evolutionary process where a single ancestral species diversifies into multiple new forms, often in response to new ecological opportunities.

Natural Selection

A trait must be inherited, shown variation, and the environment must exert some pressure on the trait. The 3 main factors are fitness (reproduction chances), population, and mutation.

Allen’s Rule

The rule talks about limb length. Basically, the linger the limbs, the better the person is in warm climates since the heat would disipate faster. The shorter the limbs, the better the person is in cold climates, since the heat would be trapped closer to body and vital organs, preserving heat.

Rickets (UV Radiation and Vitamin D)

This is the lack of UV radiation, a Vitamin D deficiency, that can cause growth abnormalities in the growing stage of life.

ABO Blood system

There are recessive, dominant, and co-dominant alleles. For blood type A, there are AA, AO. For blood type B, there are BB, BO. For blood type AB, there is AB. For blood type O, there is OO.

Malthus

Was the author who helped inspire both Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace. He argued for limits of human population growth, there is a tendency for animal populations to increase the size while resources stay the same, and population is controlled by the availability of resources.

Uniformitariaism

A theory that the same gradual geological process we observe today was operating in the past.

Biological Anthropology

the study of human evolution, variation, and adapatation to the environment

Linnaeus

Developed the Linnaean Taxonomy, a system of classifying and naming living organisms.

Sexual dimorphism

The condition where the sexes of the same species exhibit different morphological characteristics.

Down syndrome

It is a type of nondisjunctive errors, which are a failure of homologous chromosomes to seperate properly during cell division. It is speficically trisomy and there is an extra chromosome that is produced.

Mendel

The Mendel Law of Segregation, which is during the formation of gametes, the paired unit factors coin flip so that each sex cell recievers one of the other whith equal likelihood. The Mendel Law of Independent Assortment, which is during gamete formation, segregating pairs of one factor coin flip each other.

Lamarck

Proposes that traits acquired during an organism’s lifetime, such as changes in body structure due to use or disuse, can be passed down to offspring.