Core
hot metal center
Mantle
hot, solid sphere
Crust
thin, outer shell
Lithosphere
crust + mantle, where the tectonic plates are
Asthenosphere
upper mantle
What was Earth's early atmosphere composed of?
carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrogen (with small amounts of carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, and hydrogen cyanide). LITTLE oxygen
Divergent boundary
plates move away --> ridge
Transform boundary
plates slide against each other --> fault
convergent boundary
collide --> mtns
subduction zone
plates slide under
oceanic-oceanic subduction
underwater volcano --> island
continental-continental subduction
mountains
continental-oceanic subduction
continental volcanos
hot spots
places where molten material from the mantle reaches the lithosphere
index fossils
easily identified fossils used to compare relative ages
direct dating
dating the actual fossil, artifact, or feature
indirect dating
dating remains by their association with other remains that can be dated
radiometric dating
use of half-life to determine age based on remaining isotopes it contains
half-life
when radioactive/chem compounds break down to half the previous sample
Geologic time scale
scale used by paleontologists to represent evolutionary time
Miller & Urey experiment
organic compounds could have arisen from simpler compounds on a primitive Earth
DNA or RNA first?
RNA is a more simple-based system, it could evolved into DNA-directed protein synthesis
Endosymbiotic Theory
theory by Lynn Margulis that many complex features of eukaryotic cells evolved through endosymbiosis (many cells combined together)
What factors have altered Earth's habitats?
continental drift, mountain building, island formation, changes in continent and ocean leveling, global climate change, meteor impacts
Milankovitch Cycles
causes "wobbles" that affect the tilt, changes amount of heat energy --> ice age
punctuated equilibrium
equilibrium that is interrupted by brief periods of more rapid change
extinction
species fails to adapt
mass extinction
collapse of food chain and ecosystem, drastic change for surviving animals that causes speciation
rapid evolution
Evolution in less than 100 years, can be caused by genetic drift or mass extinction
adaptive radiation
species evolved through natural selection and other processes, into diverse forms that live in different ways
convergent evolution
evolution of similar characteristsics in unrelated species
coevolution
two species evolve in response to changes in each other over time