Macroevolution: The Long Run

These flashcards cover key concepts related to macroevolution and its mechanisms, including differentiation between macro and microevolution, biogeography, and adaptive radiation.

Macroevolution

Evolution occurring above the species level, including origination, diversification, and extinction.

Microevolution

Evolution occurring within populations, including adaptive and neutral changes in allele frequencies from one generation to the next.

Dispersal

The movement of populations from one geographic region to another with very limited, or no, return exchange.

Vicariance

The formation of geographic barriers to dispersal and gene flow, resulting in the separation of one continuously distributed population.

Turnover rate

The number of species eliminated and replaced per unit of time in studies of macroevolution.

Adaptive Radiation

An evolutionary process in which a single ancestral species rapidly diversifies into many new species, each adapting to a new ecological niche.

Biogeography

The study of the distribution of species across space and time.

Origination rate (α)

The rate at which new species evolve or originate.

Extinction rate (Ω)

The rate at which species go extinct.

Mass Extinction Events

Events that cause the extinction of a large number of species and allow other lineages to diversify and occupy the ecological niches left behind.

Key Innovations

Emergence of new traits in a clade that can fuel adaptive radiations.