Chapter 22 AP Bio Vocabulary

Adaptation

Inherited characteristic of an organism that enhances its survival and reproduction in specific environments.

Analogous

Having characteristics that are similar because of convergent evolution, not homology.

Artificial selection

The selective breeding of domesticated plants and animals to encourage the occurrence of desirable traits.

Biogeography

The study of the past and present distribution of species.

Catastrophism

The principle that events in the past occurred suddenly and were caused by different mechanisms than those operating today. See uniformitarianism.

Continental drift

The slow movement of the continental plates across Earth’s surface.

Convergent evolution

The evolution of similar features in independent evolutionary lineages.

Endemic

Referring to a species that is confined to a specific, relatively small geographic area.

Evolutionary tree

A branching diagram that reflects a hypothesis about evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms.

Fossil

A preserved remnant or impression of an organism that lived in the past.

Homologous structures

Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry.

Homology

Similarity in characteristics resulting from a shared ancestry.

Marsupial

A mammal, such as a koala, kangaroo, or opossum, whose young complete their embryonic development inside a maternal pouch called the marsupium.

Natural selection

A process in which organisms with certain inherited characteristics are more likely to survive and reproduce than are organisms with other characteristics.

Paleontology

The scientific study of fossils.

Pangaea

The supercontinent that formed near the end of the Paleozoic era, when plate movements brought all the landmasses of Earth together.

Stratum

A rock layer formed when new layers of sediment cover older ones and compress them.

Trait

Any detectable variant in a genetic character.

Uniformitarianism

The principle stating that mechanisms of change are constant over time. See catastrophism.

Vestigial structure

A structure of marginal, if any, importance to an organism. Vestigial structures are historical remnants of structures that had important functions in ancestors.

Continental distributions

(Historical biogeography) The study of how supercontinent breakup (e.g., Pangea splitting into Laurasia and Gondwana) shaped global life patterns and fossil distribution while creating dispersal barriers over millions of years.

Island biogeography

The study of island species distribution often features endemic species that evolved through isolation and adaptation.

Ecological distributions

Changes in species ranges and abundance over time due to adaptation, niche shifts, and environmental factors.

Explains how species’ geographic ranges and local abundances change over time due to evolutionary processes like adaptation and niche shifts, which influence many factors such as gene flow, species interactions, and environmental conditions

Similar environments in different locations can produce similar adaptations, convergent