Vocab Basics
This is a preserved remain or impression of an organism from long ago.
What is a fossil?
DNA contains this type of information needed to build an organism
What is genetic information?
changes in a species over time.
What is evolution?
Preserved remains that show what organisms looked like long ago.
What are fossils?
A diagram that shows evolutionary relationships.
What is a phylogenetic tree?
A characteristic that can be passed from parents to offspring.
What is a trait?
The four nitrogen bases found in DNA.
What are A, T, C, and G?
When the environment determines which organisms survive and reproduce.
What is natural selection?
Similar bone structures in different organisms.
What are homologous structures?
The point where branches split on the tree.
What is a node?
A piece of DNA that codes for a trait
What is a gene?
This is the early developmental stage of an organism.
What is an embryo?
A helpful trait that increases survival chances.
What is a favorable trait?
This type of evidence compares early development stages of organisms.
What are embryos?
An organism from which others evolved.
What is an ancestor?
A random change in DNA.
What is a mutation?
This determines traits and is passed from parents to offspring.
What are genes?
A trait that helps an organism survive in its environment.
What is an adaptation?
Scientists compare this to find similarities between species.
What is DNA?
Organisms that come from earlier ancestors.
What are descendants?
The different versions of a trait within a population.
What is variation?
A mutation can lead to this, which increases differences in a population.
What is variation?
How successful an organism is at passing on its genes.
What is fitness?
Name two types of evidence that support evolution.
What are fossils, DNA, embryos, or homologous structures?
A shared ancestor between two species.
What is a common ancestor?