Mutations & Variation
Biologists define this process as the change in an entire species over time, often moving too slowly to be seen day-by-day
What is Evolution?
This process, also known as domestication, involves humans choosing which specific animals or plants are bred to suit human needs.
What is artificial selection?
Charles Darwin spent five years collecting thousands of specimens and recording observations while sailing on this famous ship
What is the HMS Beagle?
Body parts that share a common evolutionary origin but may serve different functions, like a human arm and a bat wing.
What are homologous features?
This is the breeding of plants and animals by humans to produce organisms with specific desired traits.
What is artificial selection?
These mutations are selected against because they reduce the reproductive success of an individual.
What are harmful mutations?
If a brown beetle is more likely to survive and reproduce than a green beetle in a dirt environment, the brown beetle is said to have higher levels of this.
What is evolutionary fitness?
In scientific terms, this describes a well-supported explanation of how a phenomenon occurs, whereas a "Law" simply describes what happens.
What is a Theory?
Human goosebumps and the hip bones in some snakes are examples of these features that no longer serve their original purpose.
What are vestigial features?
According to Darwin, "fitness" does not mean strength, but rather the ability to achieve this.
What is reproductive success?
Differences between individuals which may be structural, functional or physiological
What is variation?
This term refers to the specific version of a gene (such as "blue eyes" vs. "brown eyes") that creates variation within a population.
What is an allele?
Darwin’s observations of different finches on different islands led him to develop this two-word theory.
What is Natural Selection?
This "molecular evidence" involves comparing DNA sequences to determine how closely related two species are.
What is comparative genomics (or DNA sequencing)?
These are non-functional "fossil genes" that still exist in DNA but have mutated so they no longer code for proteins.
What are pseudogenes?
In the 19th century, this moth species in Britain famously evolved from a pale form to a dark form due to industrial pollution.
What is the Peppered Moth?
Bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics because less-resistant strains are killed off is a modern example of this process.
What is natural selection?
This term describes Lamarck’s (now disproven) idea that a weightlifter could pass their large muscles directly to their children.
What is the Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics?
This type of evidence looks at the earliest stages of an organism's life to show that different species (like chickens and humans) look remarkably similar before birth.
What is embryology?
The study of the geographic distribution of organisms, such as why unique species are found on remote islands.
What is biogeography?
These mutations result in changes in DNA that have no immediate effect and provide no benefit or harm to the individual.
What are neutral mutations?
Populations with low variation that struggle to adapt to new survival challenges.
What is a low genetic diversity population?
Darwin proposed three conditions for natural selection: variation within a population, a struggle for existence (competition), and this third condition where fitter individuals leave more offspring
What is descent with modification?
The presence of identical fossils on continents now separated by oceans is evidence of this geological process.
What is plate tectonics (or continental drift)?
Theory that numerous (sudden) global catastrophes had caused extinctions that were replaced by newly created species
What is Catastrophism?