COMMON ANCESTORS
Species that share body structures likely share this from the past.
What is a common ancestor?
The process where species change over time.
What is evolution?
A trait that helps an organism survive in its environment.
What is an adaptive trait?
Evidence of organisms from the past found in rock.
What is a fossil?
A phrase meaning two species share a more recent common ancestor.
What is more closely related?
A group from the past that newer species came from.
What is a common ancestor population?
The process where one species becomes two species.
What is speciation?
The reason adaptive traits become more common in a population.
What is survival and reproduction?
A scientist who studies fossils.
What is a paleontologist?
The reason birds and crocodiles are considered closely related.
What is sharing more specific body structures?
The reason whales and wolves share some body structures.
What is inheritance from a common ancestor?
The reason species can look different even if they share an ancestor.
What is environmental change over millions of years?
The process where helpful traits become more common over generations.
What is natural selection?
What fossils help scientists study.
What is evolutionary history?
Three important ideas included in a Level 3 response.
What are common ancestor, environmental change, and recent ancestry?
Evidence scientists use to determine how species are related.
What are shared body structures?
The thing that usually causes body structures to change.
What is environmental change?
The reason a species may stay mostly unchanged for a long time.
What is a stable environment?
The type of evidence fossils can show scientists.
What are shared structures and ancestors?
The reason shared structures are not considered a coincidence.
What is inheritance from ancestors?
Species that share more body structures are considered this.
What is more closely related?
The process where populations in different environments develop different adaptive traits.
What is natural selection?
What may happen to traits when the environment changes.
What is different traits becoming adaptive?
What scientists compare to determine relatedness between species.
What are body structures?
What a more recent shared structure suggests about species.
What is that they are more closely related?