Terms : Hide Images
| 2557371000 | Eras | The boundaries of the geological time . |  | 0 |
| 2557378227 | Precambrian | 4,600-540 million years ago |  | 1 |
| 2557380028 | Paleozoic | 543-245 million years ago, Cambrian radiation to Permian extinction. |  | 2 |
| 2557390710 | Mesozoic | 245-65 million years ago, Permian extinction to KT extinction. |  | 3 |
| 2557393822 | Cenozoic | 65 million years ago to present Cretaceous extinction to present |  | 4 |
| 2557397444 | Cambrian Radiation | 544 million years ago; Abrupt origin of most animal phyla. | 5 | |
| 2557402076 | Permian Crisis | 245 million years ago; 52% of Families were lost: infer that 88% of Genera, 96% of Species were lost. | 6 | |
| 2557404509 | Cretaceous Extinction | 65 million years ago; 11% of marine families, last of the dinosaurs. | 7 | |
| 2557407089 | Relative Dating | Based on stratigraphy- older rocks lie below younger ones. Life changes through time- rocks with similar fossils are of similar age. |  | 8 |
| 2557409999 | Index Fossils | Widespread, common species that lived at a particular time. Presence indicates rocks of particular age. |  | 9 |
| 2557416155 | Absolute Dating | Uses change in physical constants. Radiometric methods- isotope decay, ie. carbon-14 or uranium-238. |  | 10 |
| 2557421148 | Continental Drift | Pangea to Laurasia and Gondwana to formation of modern continents. |  | 11 |
| 2557428100 | Taxonomy | Description, naming, and classification of species and higher taxa. | 12 | |
| 2557428943 | Systematics | Classification of taxa according to genealogical relationships. | 13 | |
| 2557431101 | Phlogeny | the genealogical relationships of organisms. | 14 | |
| 2557433434 | Other Classification | By habitat: Marine, troglobytic, thermophilic, etc. By physiology, anatomy, behavior: Endotherm, bipedal, social. By trophic relationships: Predator, herbivore, autotroph, etc | 15 | |
| 2557436749 | Taxa | Are particular groups of similar organisms that are assigned a rank and name. Branches of the family tree of species. | 16 | |
| 2557439299 | Taxanomic Ranks | Domain Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species |  | 17 |
| 2557460412 | Monophyletic | Descended from a common evolutionary ancestor or ancestral group, especially one not shared with any other group. |  | 18 |
| 2557463380 | Paraphyletic | Descended from a common evolutionary ancestor or ancestral group, but not including all the descendant groups. | | 19 |
| 2557468352 | Polyphyletic | Derived from more than one common evolutionary ancestor or ancestral group and therefore not suitable for placing in the same taxon. | | 20 |
| 2557474904 | Cladistics | A method by which phylogeny is deduced. Based on homologies. |  | 21 |
| 2557484190 | Plesiomorphies | Shared primitive homologies. |  | 22 |
| 2557486298 | Apomorphies | Derived homologies. |  | 23 |
| 2557503465 | Outgroup Comparison | Outgroup is less closely related to the taxa in question than they are to each other. Especially useful if a primitive feature has been lost. |  | 24 |
| 2557511025 | Molecular Phylogeny | Comparison of genetic sequences used to deduce relationships. Some regions of the DNA evolve quickly- used to compare close relatives (e.g. microsatellites) Some regions evolve slowly- used to compare distant relatives (e.g. ribosomal RNA genes) | 25 |
