Natural Selection and Adaptations
What process occurs when organisms with advantageous inherited traits survive and reproduce more successfully than others?
Natural Selection
An action or pattern that helps an organism survive.
Example: a bird migrating
Behavioral Adaptation
What is a change in an organism's DNA sequence that can introduce a new allele into a population?
Mutation
What is the study of similarities and differences in body structures among organisms that provides evidence for evolution?
Comparative Anatomy
What is the process by which new species form?
Speciation
What type of adaptation includes physical features, such as a polar bear's thick fur and layer of fat?
Structural Adaptation
What famous book, published in 1859, explained how natural selection can cause species to change over generations?
On the Origin of Species
What is the movement of alleles between populations when organisms migrate and reproduce?
Gene flow
Human arms, whale flippers, and bat wings have similar underlying bone arrangements but different functions. What are these structures called?
Homologous Structures
A canyon separates one squirrel population into two groups, causing them to evolve independently. What type of isolation initially separates them?
Geographic Isolation
Green and brown insects blend into leaves and survive better than brightly colored insects because birds have difficulty seeing them. What adaptation helps these insects survive?
Camouflage
A physiological adaptation that is an internal body process that helps an organism survive. Example: a camel conserving water
Functional adaptation
A storm randomly kills most of a beetle population. By chance, certain alleles become more common among survivors. What process explains this change?
Genetic Drift
Birds and insects both have wings for flying, but their wings developed from different ancestral structures. What are these structures called?
Analogous Structures
Two frog species breed during different seasons and rarely mate as a result. What type of reproductive isolation is this?
Temporal Isolation
A harmless king snake has coloring similar to a venomous coral snake, causing predators to avoid it. What type of adaptation is this?
Mimcry
Darwin observed that Galápagos finches had different beak shapes suited to different food sources. What process helps explain how these adaptations became common?
Natural Selection
A few birds establish a new island population, carrying only some of the alleles found in the original population. What is this type of genetic drift called?
Founder Effect
What are structures, such as the tiny pelvic bones in whales, that have lost most or all of their original ancestral function called?
Vestigial Structures
One ancestral species evolves into several species adapted to different ecological niches. What evolutionary pattern is this?
Adaptive Radiation
What are the four key parts of natural selection: differences among individuals, limited resources, differences in survival and reproductive success, and passing traits to offspring?
Variation, competition, selection, and reproduction
What is the scientific process in which inherited characteristics of populations change over generations?
Evolution
What term describes all the alleles present in a population?
Gene pool
An inherited physical, structural, functional, or behavioral trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce in its specific environment.
Adaptation
Unrelated fish evolve streamlined bodies, and unrelated desert plants develop similar water-saving features because they face similar environmental pressures. What evolutionary pattern is this?
Convergent evolution