Evolutionary Biology Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards from lecture notes.

Homologous Structures

Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry; these similar structures may or may not have similar functions.

Endemic

Referring to a species that is confined to a specific geographic area.

Biogeography

The scientific study of the past and present geographic distributions of species.

Convergent Evolution

The evolution of similar features in independent evolutionary lineages.

Adaptation

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

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.

Evolution

Descent with modification; the process by which species accumulate differences from their ancestors as they adapt to different environments over time; also defined as a change in the genetic composition of a population from generation to generation.

Fossil

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

Homology

Similarity in characteristics resulting from a shared ancestry.

Vestigial Structures

A feature of an organism that is a historical remnant of a structure that served a function in the organism's ancestor.

Stratum

The aggregate of all copies of every type of allele at all loci in every individual in a population. The term is also used in a more restricted sense as the aggregate of alleles for just one or a few loci in a population.

Paleontology

The scientific study of fossils.

Natural Selection

A process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits.

Pangaea

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