Honors HS Biology Midterm Revision: Vocabulary (TBC)

through thinkwell homeschool

organelle

a membrane-bound body that regulates some function of the eukaryotic cell

Roger Bacon

a philosopher and proponent of experimental science who urged people to reject religious dogma and '“look at the world”.

Charles Darwin

developed the theory of evolution by natural selection based on observations made on a trip around the world on the H.M.S. Beagle

gradualism

the hypothesis that major geologic structures are the cumulative result of slow, continuous processes

John Ray

naturalist who noted that fossils were the remnants of once living organisms

uniformitarianism

the idea that geologic structures result from uniform and gradual processes; proposed by James Hutton and later Charles Lyell

Aristotle

a greek philospher who identified four elements: earth, air, fire, and water

catastrophism

the theory, proposed by George Cuvier, that the earth’s landscae is shaped by global catastrophes

Galileo Galilei

a mathematician that advocated the view of copernicus that the Earth is round and revolves around the sun

James Hutton

scottish geologist who proposed the idea of gradualism to explain changes in the earth’s surface.

scientific method

a 5-step, systematic approach to answering a question

James Usher

archbishop who declared, based on bibilical interpretation, that the Earth was created in 4004 B.C.

Francis Bacon

a philosopher who advocated experimentalism as a way to verify and rigorously test all things

Georges Cuvier

the french anatomist who developed the science of paleontology; proposed the theory of catastrophism to explain boundaries in fossil record

geology

the study of the history of the earth, especially as recorded in rocks

Charles Lyell

scottish geologist who proposed uniformitarianism

Thomas Aquinas

theologian; made distinction between natural truth and revealed truth

adaptation

an aspect of structure, physiology, or behavior that increases an organism’s chance of survival and reproductive success

biogeography

the study of the past and present distribution of individual species and entire communities

inheritance of acquired characteristics

a model of evolution that states that traits that are acquired during an organism’s lifetime can be passed on to that organism’s offspring

niche

the role of a species in its community (including an organism’s adaptations, resources, and trophic interactions with other organisms)

binomial

a two-part (genus, species) latin name given to all species

Georges Buffon

the french naturalist who proposed in his work, "Histoire Naturelle”, that organisms evolve, or change, over time.

Jean Baptiste Lamarck

french naturalist who, in his functional mechanism describing evolution, incorporated the ideas of ‘use and disuse’ and ‘inheritance of acquired characteristics’ into his work

use and disuse

the idea that an organism’s useful organs will grow stronger, while those that are not will deteriorate

binomial nomenclature

the system in which all species are given a two-part latin name; first part refers to genus and second to the species

Carolus Linnaeus

swedish physician and botanist who developed a taxonomic system for the identification and classification of species

vestigial structure

a body part present on an organism with no apparent use

artificial selection

the process by which desirable traits are selected for breeding in plants and animals

natural selection

the differential success in reproduction of different phenotypes resulting from the interaction of organisms with their environment

fossil record

the remains or imprints of plants, animals, and other organisms preserved in rock

absolute dating

a method for dating fossils using the half-lives of radioactive isotopes

Carboniferous

the fifth period of the paleozoic era of the geological time scale, beginning about 360 mya and ending about 290 mya

coevolution

reciprocal evolution involving successive changes in the adaptations of two or more ecologically interdependent species

half-life

the number of years required for half of an isotope to decay into another element

mass extinction

a geological time period characterized by an extinction rate much higher than average

Ordovician period

the second period of the paleozoic era of the geologic time scale, beginning about 510 mya and ending about 440 mya

Silurian period

the third period of the paleozoic era of the geological time scale, beginning abt 440 mya and ending abt 410 mya

Triassic

the first period of the mesozoic ear of the geological time scale, beginning abt 245 mya and ending about 210 mya

amphibians

a class of vertebrates that incldues frogs, salamanders, and caecilians

cladogenesis

a pattern of evolutionary change that occurs when new species branch from existing ones

Cretaceous period

the third period of the mesozoic era on the geological time scale that began about 145 mya and ended about 65 mya

Hyracotherium

the earliest ancestor that the horse is known to have descended from; was small, had teeth for feeding on woody plants, and four toes

Merychippus

an ancestor of the horse, characterized by its larger size, teeth for grazing, and hooves with two vestigial toes

Permian period

the sixth period of the paleozoic era in the geological time scale that begins 360 mya and ends 290 mya

Tertiary period

the first period of the cenozoic era of the geological time scale

Cambrian period

the first period of the paleozoic era, beginning about 570 mya and ending about 510 mya

cladogram

a phylogenetic tree based on evolutionary relationships between organisms

Devonian period

the fourth period of the paleozoic era in the geological time scale, beginning about 410 mya and ending about 360 mya

isotope

an alternative form of an element, varying in the numbe rof neutrons in the nucleus

Mesohippus

an ancestor of the horse that had three toes, flat teeth for grazing, and was larger in size than Hyracotherium

Precambrian era

the geological time period between the origin of the earth (abt 4.5 bya) and the cambrian period (570 mya)

transition fossil

a fossil of an organism that seems to present a direct linkage between an ancestral and a descended species

Anthropoidea

a suborder that includes the higher primates; monkeys, apes, and humans

great apes

phylogenetic tree

a graphic representation of the evolutionary relationships between organisms

humans

a bipedal primate mammal (Homo sapiens).

New World Monkeys

monkeys of the suborder Anthropoidea from Mexico and South America that emerged about 40 mya

primates

members of the order Primates of the class Mammalia including humans, apes, monkeys, and related forms

apes

any of the large tailless semierect primates (as the chimpanzee, gorill,a orangutan, or gibbon) descended from the Old World monkeys

lesser apes

apes of the genus Hylobates, the gibbons

Old World monkeys

monkeys of the suborder Anthropidea found in Asia and Africa that are likely the predecessors of modern apes

Prosimii

a suborder or primates that includes lemurs and tarsiers

convergent evolution

the process by which structures with similar functions and similar appearance arise separately in different species

homologous structures

equivalent structures shared by species with common ancestors

analogous structures

structures that occur in different species that have superficial and functional similarities, not because of common ancestry, but because of convergent evolution

cecum

an organ in herbivores that harbors bacteria that can digest cellulose

inheritance

the passage of characteristics from generation to generation

appendix

the reduced remnant of the cecum found in carnivores

cellulose

a structural polysaccharide found in the cell wall of plants

adaptive radiation

the evolution of many related species from an ancestral species in a relatively short time

geographical isolation

the separation of a population from other populations of the same species due to geographical barriers

prezygotic isolation

categories of reproductive isolation that impose barriers to successful reproduction that take place before fertilization

species

a group of organisms that can breed with one another in a wild, free-ranging condition to produce fertile offspring

hybrid

having to do with a mating between unlike parents', either with different genotypes or from different, closely related, species

reproductive isolation

the inability for members of a population to reproduce with other populations of the same species

genetic divergence

an accumulation of changes that occur between isolated gene pools

postzygotic isolation

categories of reproductive isolation hat impose barriers to successful reproduction that occur after fertilization has taken place

speciation

the process by which new species arise; mechanisms include geographic isolation, genetic divergence, and reproductive isolation

Linnaean system

a system of taxonomic categories that reflect the degree to which organisms are related

abiotic

nonliving environmental factors including light, temperature, nutrients, and water

aerobic

requiring oxygen

biotic

relating to living organisms

catalyst

a substance such as an enzyme that enables a chemical reaction to proceed at a faster rate than otherwise possible

coacervate

an aggregate of polymerized molecules, such as starches and proteins, that self-assemble

DNA

a double stranded, helical nucleic acid molecule that determines the structure of proteins

eukaryote

a single-celled or multicellular organism whose cells have a membrane-bound nucleus and organelles

Haldane and Oparin

two 20th-century men who hypothesized that the condition s of primitive Earth included a reducing atmosphere; an appropriate atmosphere for the synthesis of carbon-containing molecules

heterotroph

an organism that is not able to make organic fool molecules and must obtain them by consuming other organisms

heterotroph hypothesis

a hypothesis that attempts to explain how life on Earth first evolved; suggests that first living organisms were heterotrophs and from them autotrophs evolved

hypothesis

a proposed explanation for an observation

liposome

a shell of lipids that self-assembles to surround water and molecules

microsphere

an aggregate formed when proteinoids self-assemble to surround water and exhibit some characteristics of a membrane

nucleotide

the building block of a nucleic acid; consists of a five carbon sugar, a nitrogenous base, and a phosphate group

oxidizing atmosphere

an atomsphere that contains high amounts of oxygen (O2) which participates in oxidation reactions that are not favorable for synthesizing organic molecules\

polymer

a molecule made up of individual subunits (monomers) bonded together to make one long chain

polymerization

the process by which smaller units, monomers, are joined together to form a chain or polymer

prokaryote

an organism lacking a membrane-bound nucleus and membrane-bound organelles

protein synthesis

the processes of transcription, translation, and additional conformational change that results in the creation of a protein molecule

proteinoid

an abiotically produced polypeptide