The Theory
The theory of evolution championed by Charles Darwin
What is Natural Selection?
A change in DNA
What is Mutation?
Preserved evidence of organisms of the distant past
What is a fossil?
Whether making front claws or a wing, different species use the same basic skeletal structure to produce different kinds of body parts.
What are homologous traits?
Cheetahs make antelope fast and antelope make cheetahs fast.
What is coevolution?
Failure of a species to evolve fast enough to remain fit to be in an ecosystem
What is extinction?
When an event happens that randomly kills a large percentage of a population, the gene pool is reduced
What is a bottleneck?
The type of rock in which fossils are found
What is sedimentary?
Birds and bees both have wings, but they do not have a common ancestor
What are analogous structures?
The many adaptations of Darwin's Finches are an example of this pattern
What is adaptive radiation?
The ability to produce fertile offspring better than other members of your species
What is fitness
When an organism moves and brings its traits with it to a new population
What is Gene Flow?
This is what most fossils are made of
What is Rock?
What is comparative embryology?
Of Orangutan #1 who lives to be 80 years old and has two children that are fertile and Orangutan #2, who has five children but only lives to be 40, this one is more "fit."
Who is Orangutan #2?
This is the extent to which an organism will evolve if a species' ecosystem does not change.
What is nothing (punctuated equilibrium)?
All modern thoroughbred horses are descended directly from three horses: Darley Arabian, Godolphin Arabian and Byerley Turk, restricting their gene pool.
What is the founder effect?
A scientist who studies fossils
What is a paleontologist?
The human appendix
What is a vestigial structure?
What is no reason? It is random.
He said organisms would evolve toward perfection and that traits developed in an organism's lifetime contributed to evolution.
This term includes both the founder effect and bottlenecks
What is Genetic Drift?
This type of fossil includes footprints, skin impressions, etc.
What is a trace fossil?
The rear leg bones of a whale
The liger and the mule
What are two examples of hybrid creatures who can not reproduce and are therefore not their own species.