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AP Biology - Chapter 15 Flashcards

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5379698922Radiometric datingA method that uses the decay of radioactive isotopes to determine the age of fossils and rock0
5379698923Continental driftThe idea that all land on Earth was once one great mass but then broke up into continents and drifted into their places now1
5379698924PangaeaThe name of the original supercontinent2
5379698925Plate tectonicsDescribes the forces involved in the movement of Earth's plates tectonics and the geologic processes that result3
5379698926PhylogenyThe evolutionary history of a group of organisms4
5379698927Convergent evolutionSpecies from different evolutionary branches may come to resemble one another if they live in very similar environments5
5379698928AnalogySimilarity due to convergence (aka analogous structures)6
5379698929BinomialThe two-part Latin name assigned to organism, created by Linnaeus7
5379698930GenusThe first part of the binomial which is the species the organism belongs to8
5379698931Classification of organismsDomain → Kingdom → Phylum → Class → Order → Family → Genus → Species9
5379698932Phylogenetic treesWhat biologists traditionally use to depict hypotheses about the evolutionary relationships/history of species10
5379698933CladisticsThe identification of clades11
5379698934CladesEvolutionary branches that consist of an ancestral species and all its descendants12
5379698935CladogramA diagram depicting the pattern of shared characteristics13
5379698936IngroupIs the group of taxa actually being analyzed14
5379698937OutgroupClosely related to ingroup but not a part of it15
5379698938ParsimonyThe quest for the simplest (and thus most likely) explanation for observed phenomena16
5379698939Molecular systematicsComparing nucleic acids or other molecules to infer relatedness17
5379698940Molecular clockTo show that a gene has a reliable average rate of change, this is calibrated in actual time by graphing the nucleotide differences against the dates of evolutionary branch points18
5379698941Five-kingdom systemWhittaker argued for five kingdoms: Mnera, Protista, Plantae, Fungi, Animalia instead of original three kindgom scene19

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