Vocab
Gradual Process of a Species Becoming Extinct
Background Extinction
Rapid diversification of most major animal groups marking the start of the Paleozoic Era.
Cambrian Explosion
The idea that living organisms can be created from non-living. Ex: worms being created from the mud.
Spontaneous Generation
Younger layers of rock are deposited on top of older layers.
Law of Superposition
Believed that animals could arise spontaneously
Aristotle
An event in which a large percentage of all living species become extinct in a relatively short period of time.
Mass Extinction
The process of directed breeding to produce offspring with desired traits. Also known as selective breeding.
Artificial Selection
The time required for 1/2 of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay.
Half-Life
Distinctive fossils used to establish and compare relative age of rock layers and the fossils they contain.
Index Fossils
Competition of Survival
Malthus
Relies on radioactive isotopes to tell the age of a rock/fossil. Uses the proportion of radioactive isotopes to stable isotopes to calculate the age of a sample.
Radiometric Dating
A record of the Earth's history where major geological and biological events can be identified.
Geologic Time Scale
Preserved remains or traces of ancient organisms. Could be cast, trace, or amber.
Fossil
the ancestors of eukaryotic cells lived in association with prokaryotic cells, where prokaryotes may have lived INSIDE the eukaryotes, entering as undigested prey and forming a mutually beneficial relationship. Explains origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts.
Endosymbiotic Theory
Started the belief that the Earth is extremely old
Hutton and Lyell
Placing rock layers and their fossils in a time sequence. Helps paleontologists determine whether a fossil is older or younger than other fossils.
Relative Dating
Changes over time; the process by which modern Organisms have descended from ancient organisms
Evolution
Any heritable characteristic that increases an organism's ability to survive and reproduce. Ex: claws on a tiger, camouflage, the way an animal hibernates or a plant does photosynthesis.
Adaptation
Photosynthetic prokaryotes that evolved very early in life's history and produced enough oxygen to support the formation of the ozone layer.
Cyanobacteria
Organisms could change over time in an environment selectively
Lamark
Patterns in the distribution of fossils and living species, combined with information from geology, tell how modern organisms evolved from their ancestors.
Biogeography
Describes how well an organism can survive and reproduce in its environment
Fitness
Only living organisms can produce other living organisms.
Theory of Biogenesis
The process by which organisms in natures with variations more suited to their local environment survive and leave more offspring.
Natural Selection
Species evolve in different areas due to certain conditions
Charles Darwin