Vocab

  • Adaptive trait:

    • A trait that makes it more likely to survive in a specific environment

  • Ancestor: 

    • A related organism from a previous generation

  • Body Structure:

    • A part of an organism

      • Like one or more bones

  • Common Ancestor Population:

    • An older population from which two or more newer species descended

  • Descendant Species:

    • A more recent that evolved from an ancestor population

  • Diagnose:

    • To classify based on scientific evidence

  • Environment:

    • Everything that is living and nonliving that surrounds an organism

  • Evolution:

    • The process by which species adapt to environmental changes over a very long time

  • Evolutionary Time:

    • The very long time that spans the history of Earth, from the very first cellular life to the present

  • Extinct:

    • Having died out completely and no longer alive anywhere on Earth

  • Fossil:

    • Evidence of life from the past, such as fossilized bones, footprints, or leaf prints

  • Generation:

    • A group of individuals born and living at about the same time

  • Histogram:

    • A graph that uses bars to show how characteristics or values are distributed within a group

  • Inherit: 

    • To receive genes from a parent

  • Limb:

    • An organism’s arm, leg, or wing

  • Mutation:

    • A random change to a gene that sometimes results in a new trait


  • Natural Selection:

    • The process by which the distribution of traits in a population changes over many generations

  • Organisms:

    • Living things

      • Plants, animals, and bacteria

  • Paleiontologist:

    • A scientist who studies fossils in order to understand the ancient history of life on Earth

  • Population:

    • A group of the same type of organisms living in the same area

  • Related:

    • Sharing a common ancestor population

  • Shared Structure:

    • A body structure in two or more species that features the same parts

      • ex.) the same bones

  • Speciation:

    • The process by which one population evolves into two or more different species

  • Species: 

    • A group of organisms of the same kind(could be in one or more populations) that dont reproduce with organism from any other group

  • Stability:

    • When something stays mostly the same over time

  • Trait:

    • A specific characteristic of an individual organism