Darwin's Theory of Evolution
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professordad on May 1, 2011
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47 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Evolution | Change in populations over time. It is the process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms. |
| Darwin | This naturalist was born on February 12, 1809, joined the crew of the HMS Beagle in 1831. |
| Patterns of Diversity | This was one of Darwin's observations. He saw that the characteristics of animals and plants varied over the Galapagos, and wondered if animals living on different islands have been members of the same species. |
| Species Not Evenly Distributed | This was one of Darwin's observations. Ex: grasslands in some regions were similar to one another but were inhabited by very different animals. |
| Unique Adaptations in Organisms | This was one of Darwin's observations. He noticed that many plants and animals were well suited to their environment. |
| Fossils | These are the preserved remains of ancient organisms. |
| Galapagos | On the ___ Islands, Darwin did most of his work. They were close together but had different climates. The characteristics of animals and plants varied. He wondered if animals living on different islands had been members of the same species. |
| False | True or False: When Darwin got back, he immediately rushed to publish his findings. |
| Wallace | This naturalist sent an essay summarizing Darwin's thoughts on evolutionary change, and pushed him to publish his findings. |
| Origin of Species | In 1859, Darwin published this famous book. |
| Variation | Members of each species vary from one another in important ways. |
| Artificial Selection | Breeders would only breed the "best" of each species. |
| Struggle for Existence | The ___: Members of each species compete regularly to obtain food, living space, and other necessities of life. |
| Adaptation | Any inherited characteristic that increases an organism's chance of survival. |
| Survival of the Fittest | Individuals with characteristics that are not well suited to their environment either die or leave few offspring. Individuals that are better suited to their environment survive and reproduce most successfully. |
| Natural Selection | Darwin referred to the survival of the fittest as ___. The traits being selected contribute to an organism's fitness. Over time, the species fitness is increased. |
| Descent with Modification | Natural selection produces organisms that have favorable traits. Each living species has inherited these traits over time. |
| Fossil Record | This is one piece of evidence Darwin presented for evolution. It is a source of history of life on Earth. |
| Homologous | ___ structures are structures that have different mature forms but develop from the same embryonic tissues. |
| Vestigial | ___ structures are body structures in a present day organism that no longer serves the original purpose, but was probably useful to an ancestor. |
| Embryology | The study of animals in their embryo state. |
| Biochemistry | This is one piece of evidence Darwin presented for evolution. All organisms share DNA ATP and many enzymes among their biochemical molecule. |
| Common Ancestor | All diverse species evolved from a ___. |
| True | True or False: when Darwin developed his theory of evolution, he didn't know how heredity worked. |
| Species | Members of the same ___ can interbreed and produce fertile offspring. |
| Gene Pool | All of the alleles of all individuals in a population. |
| Relative Frequency | The ___ of an allele is the number of times that an allele occurs in the gene pool compared to the occurrence of other alleles in the gene pool. Expressed as a percentage. |
| Mutation | Any change in a sequence of DNA. |
| Gene Shuffling | It occurs during meiosis (crossing over or independent assortment). |
| Single | ___-gene trait: controlled by one gene only |
| Polygenic | ___ trait: controlled by more than one gene |
| Directional | ___ selection occurs when individuals at one end of the bell-shaped curve have higher fitness than individuals near the middle or other end of the curve. |
| Stabilizing | ___ selection occurs when individuals near the middle of the curve have higher fitness than those at either end. |
| Disruptive | ___ selection occurs when individuals at the upper and lower ends of the curve have higher fitness than those near the middle. |
| Genetic Drift | In small populations, chance can cause alleles to become more or elss common. It may also occur when a small group of individuals moves into a new habitat. |
| Founder Effect | By chance, the small group may have different relative allele frequencies than did the original population [in genetic drift]. |
| Species | A group of organisms that breed with one another and produce fertile offspring. |
| Speciation | The evolution of new species. For this to happen, the gene pool must separate. |
| Reproductive | ___ isolation: when members of two populations can no longer interbreed and produce fertile offspring. |
| Behavioral | ___ isolation: when populations have different reproductive behaviors. |
| Geographic | ___ isolation: when populations are separated by geographic barriers. |
| Temporal | ___ isolation: when populations reproduce at different times. |
| Relative | ___ dating: it allows paleontologists to estimate a fossil's age compared with that of other fossils. |
| Radioactive | ___ dating: scientists calculate the age of the fossil according to the amount of remaining radioactive isotopes it contains. |
| Half Life | The time needed for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay. |
| Coevolution | When organisms that are closely connected to one another by ecological interactions evolve together. |
| Endosymbiotic | The ___ theory proposes that eukaryotic cells arose from living communites formed by prokaryotic organisms. |
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