Fossils and DNA
What is a fossil?
What are preserved remains or traces of organisms from the past?
Who survives in natural selection?
What are organisms with traits better suited to their environment?
Evolution happens to ____________, not individuals.
What are populations?
What does a cladogram show?
What are evolutionary relationships?
What is a mass extinction?
What is when many species go extinct at the same time?
Where are the oldest fossils found in rock layers?
What are the lower layers?
What is an adaptation?
What is a trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce?
What is extinction?
What is when a species dies out completely?
What is a vestigial structure?
What is a body part that no longer serves a function?
What is genetic drift?
What is a random change in gene frequencies in a population?
What does similar DNA between two species suggest?
What is that they are closely related?
Name one of the four key steps of natural selection.
What is variation, struggle, survival of the fittest, or passing traits to offspring?
What is variation?
What are differences in traits within a population?
Name one example of a vestigial structure.
What is the human appendix, wisdom teeth, gall bladder, etc.
How is genetic drift different from natural selection?
What is it happens by chance, not because of traits being more helpful?
What two types of evidence do scientists use to study evolution?
What are fossils and DNA?
What causes traits to become more common in a population over time?
What is natural selection?
What is Pangaea?
What is a supercontinent that existed millions of years ago?
What does a branch point on a cladogram represent?
What is a common ancestor and a new trait?
What is the bottleneck effect?
What is when a disaster kills many individuals, reducing genetic variation?
How did fossil evidence show that whales evolved from land animals?
What is fossils show leg bones and other traits from land-dwelling ancestors?
Explain how a struggle for survival helps lead to evolution.
What is only those with helpful traits survive and reproduce, passing on those traits?
What is the definition of evolution?
What is a change in the genetic makeup of a population over time?
Why are homologous structures evidence of evolution?
What is they show species with similar body parts likely share a common ancestor?
What is the founder effect?
What is when a few individuals start a new population, leading to different gene frequencies?