| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Adaptive radiation | The emergence of numerous species from a common ancestor introduced into an environment, presenting a diversity of new opportunities and problems |
| Allometric growth | The variation in the relative rates of growth of various parts of the body, which helps shape the organism |
| Allopatric speciation | A mode of speciation induced when the ancestral population becomes segregated by a geographic barrier |
| Allopolyploid | A common type of polyploid species resulting from two different species interbreeding and combining their chromosomes |
| Anagenesis | A pattern of evolutionary change involving the transformation of an entire population, sometimes to state different enough from the ancestral population to justify renaming it as a separate species also called phyletic evolution |
| Autopolyploid | A type of polyploid species resulting from one species doubling its chromosome number to become tetraploid, which may self-fertilize or mate with other tetraploids |
| Biological Species Concept | The definition of a species as a population or group of populations whose members have the potential in nature to interbreed and produce fertile offspring; also called a sexual species |
| Cladogenesis | A pattern of evolutionary change that produces biological diversity by budding one or more new species from a parent species that continues to exist; also called branching evolution |
| Ecological Speccies Concept | The idea that ecological roles (niches) define species |
| Exaptations | A structure that evolves and functions in one environmental context but that can perform additional functions when placed in some new environment |
| Heterochrony | Evolutionary change in the timing or rate of development |
| Macroevolution | Evolutionary change on a grand scale, encompassing the origin of new taxonomic groups, evolutionary trends, adaptive radiation, and mass extinction |
| Morphological Species Concept | The idea that species are defined by measurable anatomical criteria |
| Paedomorphosis | The retention in an adult organism of the juvenile features of its evolutionary ancestors |
| Pluralistic Species Concept | The idea that there is no universal explanation for the cohesion of individuals that make up species |
| Polyploidy | A chromosomal alteration in which the organism possesses more than two complete chromosome sets |
| Postzygotic Barrier | Prevents a hybrid zygote from developing into a viable, fertile adult. EX: mule is a infertile resulted from donkey and horse |
| Punctuates Equilibrium | A theory of evolution advocating spurts of relatively rapid change followed by long periods of stasis |
| Speciation | The origin of new species in evolution |
| Species Selection | A theory maintaining that species living the longest and generating the greatest number of species determine the direction of major evolutionary trends |
| 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 |
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