Vocabulary
A trace of an ancient organism that has been preserved in rock
What is a fossil?
Genetic information that can be used as evidence of evolution between organisms.
What is DNA?
Difference among members of a species.
Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry.
What is homologous structures?
Strategy in which organisms make more offspring than will actually survive.
What is overproduction?
A trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce
What is an adaptation?
Selection by humans for breeding of useful traits from the natural variation among different organisms
What is artificial selection?
Process by which individuals that are better suited to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully; also called survival of the fittest
What is natural selection?
An ancestral species from which later species evolved
What is a common ancestor?
Driving force of natural selection in which organisms fight for food, water, and living space
What is competition?
A group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring.
What is species?
A structure that is present in an organism but no longer serves its original purpose (ex. hip bones in whales)
What is a vestigial structure?
Describe what "fitness" means in regards to natural selection.
What is the organisms ability to survive and reproduce?
All the fossils throughout the history of the Earth that are used as evidence of evolution.
What is a Fossil Record?
Are fossils evidence of evolution?
Yes
Change in a kind of organism over time or a process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms.
What is evolution?
When members of a species become separated which may lead to the evolution of new species.
What is isolation?
The theory that evolution occurs slowly but steadily
What is gradualism?
Charles Darwin
Traveled to the Galapagos Islands on the HMS Beagle and later wrote the book "The Origin of Species."
What do mutations add to the gene pool ?
Variation
A well tested concept that explains a wide range of observations
What is a scientific theory?
According to Darwin's theory of natural selection, individuals who survive are the ones best adapted for their environment.Their survival is due to the....
possession of inherited adaptations that maximize fitness.
Pattern of evolution in which long stable periods are interrupted by brief periods of more rapid change
What is punctuated equilibrium?
Alfred Russel Wallace
British naturalist who developed a hypothesis of natural selection similar to Darwin's
What is an organism that has similar characteristics and can reproduce ?
Species