Vocab
What is biodiversity?
the variety of the earth's species, or varying life-forms, the genes they contain, the ecoystems in which they live
mineralized or petrified replicas of skeletons, bones, teeth, shells, leaves, and seeds, or impressions of such items found in rocks.
fossils
a trait that can be passed down from generation to generation.
heritable trait
What was the name of the scientist who discovered the theory of evolution
Darwin
what are large regions such as forests, deserts and grasslands with distinct climates and certain species adapted to them
biomes
what is species
a set of individuals that can mate and produce fertile offspring
the entire body of evidence gathered using fossils. It is uneven and incomplete.
fossil record
a trait that can be passed down from generation to generation.
Mutations
all species descended from earlier, ancestral species.
theory of evolution
species that migrate into, or are deliberately or accidentally introduced into an ecosystem
nonnative / invasive species
what is ecosystem diversity
the earth's variety of deserts, grasslands, forests, mountains, oceans, lakes, rivers and wetlands, a major component of biodiversity
a study that tries to reconstruct the development of life with fossil evidence.
paleontology
where individuals with certain traits are more likely to survive and reproduce under a particular set of environmental conditions than those without the traits.
natural selection
occurs when geographically isolated populations of sexually reproducing organisms become so different in genetic makeup that they cannot produce live, fertile offspring if they are rejoined and attempt to interbreed.
reproductive isolation
what are species that normally live and thrive in a particular ecosystem
native species
what are the variety of processes such as energy flow and matter cycling that occur within ecosystems as species interact with one another in food chains or webs.
functional diversity
what is a significant rise in extinction rates above the background level
mass extinction
enables individuals with a heritable trait to produce more surviving offspring than other members of the population produce.
differential reproduction
where humans change the genetic characteristics of populations by crossbreeding those with desireable traits.
artificial selection
random changes in DNA molecules of a gene in a cell that can be inherited
mutations
in jurassic park, what caused the dinosaurs to be able to reproduce? (hint: they were all girls and then they weren't)
mutation
the ability of one or more organisms in a population to tolerate a chemical designed to kill it
genetic resistance
species only found in one area and are vulnerable to extinction
endemic species
the alteration of an organisms genetic material by adding deleting or changing segments of DNA
genetic engineering