Darwin’s Five Key Ideas
This idea states that organisms produce more offspring than can survive.
What is overproduction?
Fossils provide this type of evidence.
What is historical evidence?
Body parts with no current function.
What are vestigial organs?
Study of where organisms live.
What is biogeography?
Rapid evolution after a mass extinction.
What is adaptive radiation?
Individuals in a population differ in traits.
What is variation?
Similar DNA sequences suggest this relationship.
What is common ancestry?
Similar embryonic stages suggest this.
What is shared ancestry?
Species separated by geography evolve differently.
What is geographic isolation?
Species remain stable for long periods.
What is stasis?
The idea that organisms with favorable traits survive and reproduce more.
What is natural selection?
Structures that share a common origin but may differ in function.
What are homologous structures?
The human tailbone is an example of this.
What is a vestigial structure?
Groups that can interbreed and produce fertile offspring.
What is the biological species concept?
Evolution occurs slowly over time.
What is gradualism?
Traits passed from parents to offspring.
What is inheritance?
Wings of birds and insects are an example of this type of feature
What are analogous structures?
Similar bone structure in arms of humans, whales, and bats
What are homologous structures?
Continental drift explains this distribution.
What is species spread across continents?
Long stability interrupted by rapid change.
What is punctuated equilibrium?
Over time, populations change as favorable traits accumulate.
What is descent with modification?
This method uses radioactive isotopes to determine fossil age.
What is radiometric dating?
This structure in whales shows they evolved from land mammals.
What are pelvic bones?
Unique species found only in one place.
What are endemic species?
When unrelated species evolve similar traits.
What is convergent evolution?