AP Biology Unit 7 Vocabulary Part 1

adaption

heritable trait or behavior in an organism that aids in its survival and reproduction in its present environment

analogous (structures)

similar structures in different species, but not based on common ancestors

artificial selection

humans have modified other species over many generations by selecting and breeding individuals that possessed desired traits

bottleneck effect

magnification of genetic drift as a result of natural events or catastrophes

cline

gradual geographic variation across an ecological gradient

convergent evolution

process by which groups of organisms independently evolve to similar forms

founder effect

event that initiates an allele frequency change in part of the population, which is not typical of the original population

gene flow

flow of alleles in and out of a population due to the migration of individuals or gametes

gene pool

all of the alleles carried by all of the individuals in the population

genetic drift

effect of chance on a population's gene pool

homologous structures

parallel structures in diverse organisms that have a common ancestor

homology

similarity in characteristics resulting from a shared ancestry

microevolution

changes in a population's genetic structure

macroevolution

broader scale evolutionary changes seen over paleontology time

natural selection

reproduction of individuals with favorable genetic traits that survive environmental change because of these traits, leading to evolutionary change

vestigial structures

physical structure present in an organism but that has no apparent function and appears to be from a functional structure in a distant ancestor