BIO 1560: Evolution and Descent with Modification Vocabulary

Vocabulary practice flashcards defining foundational terms, historical figures, mechanisms, and evidence of evolution based on BIO 1560 Chapter 19 lecture notes.

Unity

The observation that organisms share many characteristics because they descended from common ancestors.

Adaptation

Inherited traits possessed by organisms that help them survive and reproduce in their specific environments.

Diversity

The observation that species change over time, resulting in the incredible variety of life on Earth.

Descent with modification

Charles Darwin's phrase defining evolution, describing how populations accumulate inherited changes over time from shared common ancestors, acting as both a pattern and a process.

Aristotle

Greek philosopher ($384\text{--}322\text{ BCE}$) who viewed species as fixed and arranged them on a scale of increasing complexity.

Carolus Linnaeus

Swedish scientist ($1707\text{--}1778$) who adopted a nested classification system, grouping species into increasingly general categories.

Fossils

Preserved remains or traces of ancient organisms, most commonly found in sedimentary rock layers.

Strata

Layers of sedimentary rock formed underwater that contain fossils, where older layers display fossils increasingly different from modern organisms.

Paleontology

The scientific study of fossils.

Georges Cuvier

Scientist who studied fossils and proposed that catastrophic events caused many species to become extinct.

James Hutton

Geologist who proposed that Earth's geological features formed through slow, continuous processes.

Charles Lyell

Geologist who expanded on Hutton's ideas, suggesting that the same geological processes shaping Earth today operated in the past at the same rate.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Naturist who proposed an early hypothesis of evolution involving use and disuse and the inheritance of acquired characteristics.

Use and disuse

Lamarckian concept proposing that body structures frequently used become stronger, while unused structures weaken.

Inheritance of acquired characteristics

Lamarckian concept proposing that modifications acquired during an organism's lifetime can be passed to its offspring.

Natural selection

A process in which individuals with advantageous inherited traits are more likely to survive and reproduce, making those traits more common in the population over generations.

Geospiza scandens

The common cactus finch of the Galápagos, characterized by a long, sharp beak adapted for tearing and eating cactus flowers and pulp.

Geospiza magnirostris

The large ground finch of the Galápagos, possessing a large, robust beak adapted for cracking seeds on the ground.

Certhidea olivacea

The green warbler finch of the Galápagos, which features a narrow, pointed beak adapted for grasping insects.

Alfred Russel Wallace

Naturalist who independently formulated a theory of natural selection identical to Darwin's in $1858$.

Thomas Malthus

Economist whose essay on population growth exceeding available resources influenced Darwin's concept of competitive survival.

Artificial selection

The selective breeding of domesticated plants and animals by humans to select for desirable inherited traits.

Homology

Similarity in characteristics across different species resulting from shared common ancestry.

Homologous structures

Anatomical features in different organisms that share a common structural pattern due to common ancestry, though they may serve different functions.

Vestigial structures

Remnants of features that served important functions in an organism's ancestors but have reduced or no function in modern species.

Convergent evolution

The independent evolution of similar adaptations in distantly related lineages caused by similar environmental pressures.

Analogous structures

Structures across species that share similar functions but evolved independently through convergent evolution rather than common ancestry.

Biogeography

The scientific study of the geographic distribution of species across Earth, influenced by factors like continental drift.

Scientific theory

A broad, well-supported explanation for a wide range of natural observations that is continually tested and substantiated by evidence.