| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Derived Character | Evolved in an ancestor of one group but not of the other. |
| Cladogram | Branching diagram that show the evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms |
| Evolutionary Systematics | Varying degrees of importance to characters and thus produce a subjective analysis of evolutionary relationships. |
| Phylogenetic Tree | A branching diagram where evolutionary relationships are displayed. |
| Population | Consists of all in the individuals of a species that live in a specific geographical area and that can interbreed |
| Natural selection | The process by which individuals that have favorable variations and are better adapted to their environment survive and reproduce more successfully than less well adapted individuals do. |
| Adaptation | A feature that has become common in a population because the feature provides a selective advantage. (Memorize Darwin’s theory) |
| Reproductive Isolation | The Condition in which two populations of the same species do not breed with one another because of their geographic separation. |
| Gradualism | The model of evolution in which gradual change over a long period of time leads to species formation |
| Punctuated Equilibrium | Model of evolution, in which periods of rapid change in species are separated by periods of little or no change. |
| Paleontologist | A scientist who studies fossils. |
| Mycorrhizae | Symbiotic associations between fungi and the roots of plants. |
| Mutualism | A relationship between two species in which both species benefit. |
| Arthropod | Kind of animal with a hard outer skeleton. (lobster, crab, insect, spider) |
| Vertebrate | An animal with a backbone. |
| Taxonomy | The science of naming and classifying organisms |
| Binomial Nomenclature | Linnaeus’s two-word system for naming organisms |
| Genus | Taxonomic category containing similar species |
| Biological Species | A group of natural populations that are interbreeding or that could interbreed |
| Phylogeny | An organism’s evolutionary history |
| Convergent Evolution | A process where similarities evolve in organisms not closely related to one another, often because the organisms live in similar habitats |
| Cladistics | Method of analysis that reconstructs phylogenies by inferring relationships based on shared charactors |
| Ancestral Characters | Evolved in a common ancestor of both groups |
| Vestigial structures | Structures that are considered to be evidence of an organism’s evolutionary path |
| Homologous structures | Structures that share a common ancestry. |
| Divergence | Accumulation of differences between groups |
| Speculation | The process by which new species form. |
| Subspecies | Over time, populations of the same species that differ genetically because of adaptations to different living conditions. |
| Radiometric dating | The estimation of the age of an object by measuring its content of certain radioactive isotopes. |
| Radioisotopes | Unstable isotopes that break down and give off energy in the form of charged particles. (Radiation) This breakdown , called radioactive decay, results in other isotopes that are smaller and more stable. |
| Half- Life | The amount of time it takes for one half of a given amount of a radio isotope to decay. |
| Microspheres | Vesicles made of short chains of amino acids and might have been the first step towards the organization of cells. |
| Cyanobacteria | Photosynthetic prokaryotes |
| Eubacteria | Prokaryotes that contain a chemical called peptidoglycan. Includes many bacteria that cause disease and decay. |
| Archaebacteria | Prokaryotes that lack peptidoglycan in their cell walls, and have unique lipids in their cell membranes. (resembles the first prokaryotes on earth.) |
| Endosymbiosis | Theory proposed by Lynn Margulis which propses that mitochondria are descendants of symbiotic, aerobuc eubacteria and chloroplasts are descentdants of symbiotic, photosynthetic eubacteria. (Read pg. 260) |
| Protists | Make up a large varied group that includes both multicellular and unicellular organisms. |
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