UNIT 7 Test Vocab
Chapter 22-Descent with Modifications
Chapter 23-The Evolution of Populations
Terms : Hide Images
| 144742995 | Adaptation | An inherited characteristic that increases an organism's chance of survival | |
| 144742996 | Paleontology | The science dealing with life in the past as recorded in fossils | |
| 144742997 | Natural Selection | The process by which individuals that are better suited to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully; also called survival of the fittest | |
| 144742998 | Descent with Modification | Darwin's initial phrase for the general process of evolution | |
| 144742999 | Artificial Selection | Selective breeding of domesticated plants and animals to produce offspring with desired genetic traits | |
| 144743000 | Biogeography | The study of the past and present distribution of species. | |
| 144743001 | Homologies | In biology, structures possessed by two different organisms that arise in similar fashion and pass through similar stages during embryonic development, though they may possess different functions. | |
| 144743002 | Vestigial Structures | Remnant of a structure that may have had an important function in a species' ancestors, but has no clear function in the modern species. | |
| 144743003 | Gene Pool | The combined genetic information of all members of a particular population | |
| 144743004 | Genetic Drift | The gradual changes in gene frequencies in a population due to random events | |
| 144743005 | Bottleneck Effect | Genetic drift resulting from the reduction of a population, typically by a natural disaster, such that the surviving population is no longer genetically representative of the original population. | |
| 144743006 | Founder Effect | When a few individuals become isolated from a larger population, this smaller group may establish a new population whose gene pool isn't reflective of the source population | |
| 144743007 | Gene Flow | Movement of alleles into or out of a population due to the migration of individuals to or from the population | |
| 144743008 | Geographic Variation | Differences between the gene pools of separate populations or population subgroups | |
| 144743009 | Directional Selection | Form of natural selection in which the entire curve moves; occurs when individuals at one end of a distribution curve have higher fitness than individuals in the middle or at the other end of the curve | |
| 144743010 | Diversifying Selection | Natural selection that favors extreme over intermediate phenotypes. | |
| 144743011 | Stabilizing Selection | Form of natural selection by which the center of the curve remains in its current position; occurs when individuals near the center of a distribution curve have higher fitness than individuals at either end | |
| 144743012 | Intersexual Selection | Selection whereby individuals of one sex (usually females) are choosy in selecting their mates from individuals of the other sex; also called mate choice. | |
| 144743013 | Intrasexual Selection | A direct competition among individuals of one sex (usually the males in vertebrates) for mates of the opposite sex. | |
| 144743014 | Sexual Dimorphism | Differences in physical characteristics between males and females of the same species. For example, humans are slightly dimorphic for body size, with males being taller, on average, than females of the same population. | |
| 144743015 | Microevolution | Evolution on the smallest scale—a generation-to-generation change in the frequencies of alleles within a population |
