Evolution Flashcards

Flashcards for reviewing Evolution lecture notes.

Natural Selection

Organisms with the “best” traits will live longer and reproduce more than others, causing changes in the population.

Fitness (survival of the fittest)

The more diversity there is, the more of us survive making the whole population stronger.

Speciation

Forming of a new species by evolution from a pre-existing species.

Extinction

Elimination of a species.

Gradual Extinction

Extinction that occurs at a slow rate (ex. climate change).

Mass Extinction

Extinction that occurs when a catastrophic event changes the environment suddenly (ex. volcano).

Gradualism

Slow but constant changes over a long period of time.

Punctuated Equilibrium

Burst of change followed by periods of stability.

Divergent Evolution

A number of different species arise from one common ancestor.

Convergent Evolution

When unrelated species evolve similar environments.

Transitional Fossils

Link ancestral species to their descendants critical for piecing together evolutionary history.

Homologous Structures

Similar structures that suggest evidence of common ancestry, a result of divergent evolution.

Vestigial Structures

Structures with little or no function to an organism, a result of convergent evolution.

Biogeography

Species in nearby geographic areas often resemble each other with variation for the specific environments.

Embryology

Similarities in the embryos of vertebrates early in development suggest common ancestry among vertebrates.

Eubacteria

Prokaryotes, “true” bacteria, like pathogens.

Archaebacteria

Prokaryotes in extreme environments.

Eukarya

Eukaryotes.

Taxonomy

Field of biology that classifies organisms.

Phylogeny

Evolutionary history of a species.

Endosymbiotic Theory

Overtime coevolution of the two prokaryotes occurred and eventually led to speciation and the 1st eukaryotes.

Phylogenetic Trees

A diagram used to predict evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms.

Microevolution

Evolution can occur on a small scale affecting a single population.

Macroevolution

Evolution on a large scale affecting changes in species across populations.

Genetic Drift

Random change in the frequency of alleles in a population over time.

Gene Flow

Movement of genes into/out of a population.

Sexual Selection

The selection of traits that aren't necessarily good for survival fitness, but without them, you can't pass on your genes at all because you can't reproduce.

Coevolution

Different organisms depend on each other and evolve together.

Adaptive Radiation

A type of divergent evolution occurring over a short period of time.

Endemic Species

Species that only exist in one geographic region.

Phenotype

The set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment.