Evolution and Population Genetics Vocabulary

A collection of vocabulary flashcards covering evolutionary concepts, adaptation, evidence for evolution, genetics, and types of natural selection based on the lecture notes.

Evolution

Change in a species over time; process of biological change by which descendents come to differ from their ancestors.

Natural selection

Mechanism by which individuals that have inherited beneficial adaptations produce more offspring on average than do other individuals.

Charles Darwin

Published On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection.

Fitness

Measure of an organism’s ability to survive and produce offspring relative to other members of a population.

Variation

Differences in physical traits of an individual from the group to which it belongs.

Inheritability

Ability of a trait to be passsed from one generation to the next.

Artificial selection

Process by which humans modify a species by breeding it for certain traits.

Adaptation

Inherited trait that is selected for over time because it allows organisms to better survive in their environment.

Structural adaptation

An inherited trait pertaining to anatomical or morhphological characters.

Mimicry

Structural adaptation that enables one species to resemble another species.

Camouflage

Structural adaptation that enables species to blend with their surroundings.

Physiological adaptation

An inherited trait pertaining to processes within an organism.

Fossil record

The totality of fossilized artifacts and their placement within the earth's rock strata. It provides information about the history of life on earth, for instance what the organisms look like, where and when they live, how they evolved, etc.

Homologous structures

Body part that is similar in structure on different organisms but performs different functions.

Analogous structures

Body part that is similar in function as a body part of another organism but is structurally different.

Vestigial structures

Remnants of an organ or structure that functioned in an earlier ancestor.

Genotype

Collection of all of an organism’s genetic information that codes for traits.

Phenotype

Collection of all of an organism’s physical characteristics.

Gene pool

Collection of alleles found in all of the individuals of a population.

Genetic drift

Change in allele frequencies due to chance along, occurring most commonly in small populations.

Founder effect

Genetic drift that occurs after a small number of individuals colonize a new area.

Bottleneck effect

Genetic drift that results from an event that drastically reduces the size of a population.

Allele

Any of the alternative forms of a gene that occurs at a specific place on a chromosome.

Allele frequency

Proportion of one allele, compared with all the alleles from that trait, in the gene pool.

Stabilizing selection

Type of natural selection that favors the intermediate phenotype, causing it to become more common in the population.

Directional selection

Type of natural selection that favors an extreme phenotype, causing it to become more common in the population.

Disruptive selection

A type of natural selection that favors both extremes of a phenotype, causing then to become more common in the population.