Evidence for Evolution Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards generated from the introductory lecture on evidence for evolution, mechanisms, homology, biogeography, and artificial selection.

Evolutionary patterns

Phylogenetic histories and structural trends of organisms studied over time by evolutionary biologists.

Evolutionary mechanisms

The processes unfolding primarily at the population level that are responsible for creating evolutionary patterns.

Fact of evolution

The core evolutionary prediction that organisms undergo change over time.

Homology

Patterns of similarity in the traits of organisms that are due to common inheritance from a shared ancestor.

Vestigial traits

Characteristics or structures that have evolved to be highly reduced and non-functional because natural selection disfavored their costly maintenance.

Endemic species

Organisms that are native only to a specific geographic region, such as Australia, and cannot be found naturally anywhere else.

Convergent evolution

The process where independent lineages evolve similar traits or ecological specialists due to natural selection operating in similar ecological contexts.

Artificial selection

A selective process in which humans choose which individual organisms reproduce, demonstrating how selection alters forms over time.

Teosinte

A Mesoamerican grass plant that serves as the wild ancestor of modern cultivated corn.

Tick tollic

A transitional fossil discovered on Elvir Island and described in 2006 that links tetrapods to their fish ancestors.