AP Biology Evolution unit
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| 1763835093 | Darwin | A biologist who developed theory of evolution of species (1859). He argued that all living species evolved into their present form through the ability to adapt in a struggle for survival. | 0 | |
| 1763835094 | On the Origin of Species | A book published in 1859 that proposed the mechanism for evolution that he called natural selection. | 1 | |
| 1763835095 | Galapagos | Chain of islands near South America where Darwin developed his theory of natural selection by studying the unique life there. | 2 | |
| 1763835096 | Natural Selection | A process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits. | 3 | |
| 1763835097 | evolution | Change over time | 4 | |
| 1763835098 | taxonomy | Naming and classifying organisms | 5 | |
| 1763835099 | Linnaeus | Swedish botanist who proposed the modern system of biological nomenclature (1707-1778) | 6 | |
| 1763835100 | Hutton | Earth is shaped by geological forces that take a very long time; Earth must be millions of years old. | 7 | |
| 1763835101 | Lamark | 1. cited "use and disuse" which purported that parts of the body used frequently would become larger and stronger, eventually leading to the acquisition of new abilities (For ex.: flightless ancestors of birds that continuously flap their arms will develop small wings, these wings will eventually increase in size and eventually permit flight). Conversely, parts of the body not used, (disuse), like the wings would eventually decrease in size over generations and eventually disappear. 2. Acquired characteristics could be inherited. If you were a blacksmith and developed strong arm muscles, your children would inherit big muscles too! | 8 | |
| 1763835102 | Malthus | An English economist who argued that increases in population would outgrow increases in the means of subsistence; consequences will be war, famine, and disease (1766-1834) | 9 | |
| 1763835103 | Cuvier | 1770-1830. Established extinction as fact. Objected to evolution, thought it couldn't happen because any change in an organism would result in its death. Came up with Catastrophism: global catastrophes result in periods of mass extinction and changes in the environment. | 10 | |
| 1763835104 | Lyell | 'Father of uniformitarianism' - belief that the earth was old, and catastrophism happened slowly | 11 | |
| 1763835105 | Wallace | (Darwin's influences) naturalist, comes from modest background, well-traveled and well-read; independently came up with the idea of natural selection | 12 | |
| 1763835106 | gradualism | A proposed explanation in evolutionary biology stating that new species arise from the result of slight modifications (mutations and resulting phenotypic changes) over many generations. | 13 | |
| 1763835107 | uniformitarianism | A principle that geologic processes that occurred in the past can be explained by current geologic processes | 14 | |
| 1763835108 | fossils | Preserved remains of once-living organisms | 15 | |
| 1763835109 | sedimentary rock | A type of rock that forms when particles from other rocks or the remains of plants and animals are pressed and cemented together | 16 | |
| 1763835110 | catastrophism | A principle that states that geologic change occurs suddenly | 17 | |
| 1763835111 | descent with modification | principle that each living species has descended, with changes, from other species over time | 18 | |
| 1763835112 | adaptation | A characteristic that improves an individual's ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. | 19 | |
| 1763835113 | artificial selection | Breeding organisms with specific traits in order to produce offspring with identical traits. | 20 | |
| 1763835114 | homology | Characteristics in related species can have underlying similarity even though they have very different functions. | 21 | |
| 1763835115 | homologous structures | Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry. | 22 | |
| 1763835116 | vestigial structure | remnant of a structure that may have had an important function in a species' ancestors, but has no clear function in the modern species. | 23 | |
| 1763835117 | embryology | Many organisms have similar structures as an embryo; Humans do have gills as embryos just like pigs, birds, and turtles; Organisms that share similar structures as an embryo most likely came from a common ancestor | 24 | |
| 1763835118 | molecular homology | similar DNA (amino acid sequences) among different species from a common ancestor | 25 | |
| 1763835119 | biogeography | Geographic dist. of species meaning animals are closer together geographically are more alike than those separated. | 26 | |
| 1763835120 | population genetics | The study of genetic changes in populations; the science of microevolutionary changes in populations. | 27 | |
| 1763835121 | modern synthesis | A comprehensive theory of evolution that incorporates genetics and includes most of Darwin's ideas, focusing on populations as the fundamental units of evolution. | 28 | |
| 1763835122 | population | A group of individuals that belong to the same species and live in the same area | 29 | |
| 1763835123 | gene pool | Combined genetic information of all the members of a particular population | 30 | |
| 1763835124 | Hardy Weinberg | condition that occurs when the frequency of alleles in a particular gene pool remain constant over time | 31 | |
| 1763835125 | Hardy Weinberg equilibrium | Theory of a stable, nonevolving population in which frequency of alleles do not change; only occurs in large, isolated populations with random mating, and no natural selection or mutations. | 32 | |
| 1763835126 | Hardy Weinberg equation | p^2 + 2pq + q^2 = 1 | 33 | |
| 1763835127 | microevolution | Change in allele frequencies in a population over generations. | 34 | |
| 1763835128 | genetic drift | A change in the allele frequency of a population as a result of chance events rather than natural selection. | 35 | |
| 1763835129 | 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. | 36 | |
| 1763835130 | Founder effect | Genetic drift that occurs when a few individuals become isolated from a larger population and form a new population whose gene pool composition is not reflective of that of the original population. | 37 | |
| 1763835131 | gene flow | Movement of alleles into or out of a population due to the migration of individuals to or from the population | 38 | |
| 1763835132 | mutation | any event that changes genetic structure | 39 | |
| 1763835133 | genetic variation | Differences among individuals in the composition of their genes or other DNA segments | 40 | |
| 1763835134 | polymorphism | the existence of two or more forms of individuals within the same animal species (independent of sex differences) | 41 | |
| 1763835135 | gene diversity | genetic variation at level of whole genes | 42 | |
| 1763835136 | nucleotide diversity | comparing the nucleotide sequences of DNA samples from two individuals then pooling the data from many such comparisons of two individuals | 43 | |
| 1763835137 | sexual recombination | Creates an incredible number of new beings from a relatively small number of alleles; nearly universal among higher organism; 2 diploid organisms engage= zygote now has four copies of every gene, its offspring will have 8 copies etc... | 44 | |
| 1763835138 | heterozygote advantage | Greater reproductive success of heterozygous individuals compared to homozygotes; tends to preserve variation in gene pools. | 45 | |
| 1763835139 | Sickle cell anemia | A great example of heterozygote advantage | 46 | |
| 1763835140 | frequency dependent selection | A decline in the reproductive success of a morph resulting from the morph's phenotype becoming too common in a population; a cause of balanced polymorphism in populations. | 47 | |
| 1763835141 | neutral variation | genetic variation that does not appear to provide a selective advantage or disadvantage | 48 | |
| 1763835142 | fitness | Ability of an organism to survive and reproduce in its environment | 49 | |
| 1763835143 | directional selection | Natural selection in which individuals at one end of the phenotypic range survive or reproduce more successfully than do other individuals. | 50 | |
| 1763835144 | disruptive selection | Form of natural selection in which a single curve splits into two; occurs when individuals at the upper and lower ends of a distribution curve have higher fitness than individuals near the middle. | 51 | |
| 1763835145 | stabilizing selection | Natural selection in which intermediate phenotypes survive or reproduce more successfully than do extreme phenotypes. | 52 | |
| 1763835146 | intrasexual selection | A direct competition among individuals of one sex (usually the males in vertebrates) for mates of the opposite sex. | 53 | |
| 1763835147 | 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. | 54 | |
| 1763835148 | species | A group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring. | 55 | |
| 1763835149 | prezygotic barrier | A reproductive barrier that impedes mating between species or hinders fertilization if interspecific mating is attempted | 56 | |
| 1763835150 | habitat isolation | Populations live in different habitats and do not meet | 57 | |
| 1763835151 | behavioral isolation | Form of reproductive isolation in which two populations have differences in courtship rituals or other types of behavior that prevent them from interbreeding | 58 | |
| 1763835152 | temporal isolation | Form of reproductive isolation in which two populations reproduce at different times | 59 | |
| 1763835153 | mechanical isolation | Morphological differences can prevent successful mating | 60 | |
| 1763835154 | gametic isolation | A prezygotic reproductive barrier where the sperm of one species may not be able to fertilize the eggs of another species | 61 | |
| 1763835155 | Postzygotic barrier | Any of several species-isolating mechanisms that prevent hybrids produced by two different species from developing into viable, fertile adults. | 62 | |
| 1763835156 | reduced hybrid viability | Genes of the different parent species may interact and impair the hybrid's development | 63 | |
| 1763835157 | reduced hybrid fertility | Even if hybrids are vigorous, they may be sterile | 64 | |
| 1763835158 | hybrid breakdown | Offspring of hybrids are weak or infertile | 65 | |
| 1763835159 | allopatric speciation | The formation of a new species as a result of an ancestral population's becoming isolated by a geographic barrier. | 66 | |
| 1769288866 | sympatric speciation | A mode of speciation occurring as a result of a radical change in the genome of a subpopulation, reproductively isolating the subpopulation from the parent population. | 67 | |
| 1769288867 | punctuated equilibrium | A proposed explanation in evolutionary biology stating that species are generally stable over long periods of time. Occasionally there are rapid changes that affect some species which can quickly result in a new species. | 68 | |
| 1769288868 | phylogeny | the sequence of events involved in the evolutionary development of a species or taxonomic group of organisms | 69 | |
| 1769288869 | fossil record | Chronological collection of life's remains in sedimentary rock layers | 70 | |
| 1769288870 | mass extinction | event in which many types of living things become extinct at the same time | 71 | |
| 1769288871 | binomial nomenclature | Classification system in which each species is assigned a two-part scientific name | 72 | |
| 1769288872 | taxon | A classification of organisms into groups based on similarities of structure or origin etc | 73 | |
| 1769288873 | cladogram | A diagram that is based on patterns of shared, derived traits and that shows the evolutionary relationships between groups of organisms | 74 | |
| 1769288874 | monophyletic | ALL descendants came from one common ancestor | 75 | |
| 1769288875 | paraphyletic | pertaining to a grouping of species that consists of an ancestral species and some, but not all, of its descendants. | 76 | |
| 1769288876 | polyphyletic | Descendants with 2 or more ancestral sources | 77 | |
| 1769288877 | analogous structure | Similar in function but not structure | 78 | |
| 1769288878 | convergent evolution | Process by which unrelated organisms independently evolve similarities when adapting to similar environments | 79 | |
| 1769288879 | parsimony | In scientific studies, the search for the least complex explanation for an observed phenomenon | 80 |
