This characteristic is defined by an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in its environment.
What is fitness?
100
The order in which these are found underground can help determine their relative ages.
What are fossils?
100
This is the movement of genes between populations.
What is gene flow?
100
This happens when a species branches/evolves into many different species. It can often occur after mass extinctions or in new habitats with many vacant niches. Examples include finches, Anolis lizards, and cichlid fish.
What is adaptive radiation?
100
When this event occurs, a large percentage of species on the earth die off.
What is a mass extinction?
200
This characteristic of a population involves naturally occurring differences between individuals.
What is [genetic] variation?
200
Similarities in the sequence of this molecule observed between species provide evidence of close evolutionary relationships.
What is DNA?
200
This happens when a population is dramatically reduced by an event such as a natural disaster. It can be dangerous because it often decreases genetic variation.
What is the bottleneck effect?
200
Wings in birds and wings in butterflies are examples of this type of evolution, which occurs when unrelated species start to appear similar.
What is convergent evolution?
200
The term refers to a trait that has evolved over generations and increases an organism's fitness.
What is an adaptation?
300
Natural selection depends on this event, which is responsible for creating new genes and traits.
What is mutation?
300
This field involves studying early developmental changes in organisms before birth. Similarities are considered evidence of close relationships.
What is embryology?
300
Small populations are more susceptible to this process than large populations. It involves changes in allele frequencies due to chance.
What is genetic drift?
300
Two species of crickets that breed at different times of year and do not mate with each other have undergone this process.
What is reproductive isolation?
300
These genes are responsible for timing during development and for switching other genes on and off. Small changes to these genes can cause major "remodeling" changes.
What are master control genes / homeotic genes?
400
When people don't finish taking their antibiotics, natural selection can cause populations of bacteria to evolve this trait.
What is antibiotic resistance?
400
This term refers to the patterns in locations on Earth where related species are found.
What is geographic distribution?
400
This occurs when a small number of individuals start a new population in a new location. The new population might have different allele frequencies than the parent population.
What is the founder effect?
400
As newts have evolved toxicity, garter snakes have evolved resistance to it. Over time, the newts evolve even greater toxicity, and the snakes evolve greater resistance.
This term describes this process of species evolving along with each other over time.
What is coevolution?
400
This term means that evolution occurs at different speeds. Sometimes there is rapid change, while other times there are long periods of relatively little change.
What is punctuated equilibrium?
500
This term refers to the fact that organisms often give birth to many offspring, even though not all will survive.
What is overproduction?
500
Finger bones found in whale fins, bat wings, and human arms are examples of this type of structure, which results from common ancestry.
What are homologous [structures]?
500
This term is used to describe all of the alleles in a given population.
What is a gene pool?
500
Related species in similar habitats can continue to evolve similar traits during this process.
What is parallel evolution?
500
The exact age of a fossil can be determined by doing calculations using this method / property of carbon 14.