Comparative Anatomy
The study of similarities and differences in the structures of different species to understand evolutionary adaptations and relationships?
What is comparative anatomy?
Recorded fossils preserved in rock layers show evidence of past life and evolutionary change.
What is the fossil record?
The study of species distribution, showing how organisms evolved differently in different locations.
What is biogeography?
This field studies how embryos develop and compares early developmental stages of different species.
What is embryology?
This insect became darker during the Industrial Revolution, showing natural selection in action.
What is the peppered moth?
Similarities in the bone structures of vertebrate limbs that support common ancestry, used in different environments.
What are homologous structures?
They show intermediate traits between ancestral and modern species.
What are transitional fossils?
This famous naturalist studied finches on the Galápagos Islands and helped develop the theory of evolution.
Who is Charles Darwin?
Scientists observing bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics are seeing evolution through this type of evidence.
What is direct observation?
This animal from the Galápagos Islands has different shell shapes depending on the island it lives on.
What is the Galápagos tortoise?
Structures that have lost their original function, showing traits inherited from ancestors.
What are vestigial structures?
Fossils can help scientists compare organisms over time and understand changes in species; this type of study is called this.
What is paleontology?
Darwin studied these birds on the Galápagos Islands, which evolved different beak shapes depending on available food.
What are Darwin's finches?
Comparing DNA and protein sequences between species is part of this branch of evolutionary evidence.
What is biochemistry/molecular biology?
This is a type of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
What is MRSA?
The similar bone arrangement in the forelimbs of humans, whales, and bats suggests this evolutionary idea.
What is common ancestry?
One limitation of the fossil record is that this process rarely happens, meaning many organisms never become fossils.
What is fossilization?
Biogeography provides evidence of this type of evolution.
What is divergent evolution?
Humans and chimpanzees share about this percent of their DNA, showing a close evolutionary relationship.
What is 98%?
This transitional fossil shows characteristics of both dinosaurs and early birds.
What is Archaeopteryx?
Structures in different species that perform the same function but evolved independently.
What are analogous structures?
Provide two examples of fossils other than bones.
(two of these) What are shells, teeth, hair preserved in amber, footprints in mud, imprints on rock, and mummified remains?
Species that exist in one geographical region.
What is an endemic species?
Similarities in the way different species’ bodies function, like the way cells use the same basic chemical processes, provide this type of evidence for evolution.
What is physiological evidence?
The process in which a human zygote develops from a single fertilized cell to an organized system of cells by the end of eight weeks.
What is embryogenesis?