| Term | Definition |
|---|
| evolution | the change in a population's inherited traits from generation to generation |
| natural selection | the evolutionary process by which favorable traits that are heritable become more common in successive generations |
| evolutionary adaptations | inherited traits further developed through evolution |
| gradualism | the slow, gradual steps of change |
| uniformitarianism | the philosophy of science that believes that the natural processes operating now are doing so at the same rate as in the past |
| artificial selection | the intentional breeding of certain characteristics over others |
| homology | any similarity between structures due to shared ancestry |
| homologous structures | any structures that are sismilar due to shared ancestry |
| vestigial organs | anatomical structures of organisms in a species which have lost much or all of their original function due to evolution |
| phylogeny | the study of evolutionary relatedness among various groups of organisms |
| population | the collection of people or organisms of a particular species living in a given geographic area or space |
| species | one of the basic units of biological classification |
| Hardy-Weinberg Theorum | a relationship between the frequencies of alleles and the genotype of a population |
| Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium | when alleles are in perfect Hardy-Weinberg proportion |
| Hardy-Weinberg equation | p²+2pq+q²=1 |
| macroevolution | evolution that occurs at or above the species level |
| bottleneck effect | an evolutionary event in which a significant percentage of a population or species is killed or otherwise prevented from reproducing |
| founder effect | establishing a population by a small number of individuals, carrying only a small fraction of the original population's genetic variation |
| gene flow | the transfer of gene alleles from one population to another |
| balanced polymorphism | natural selection maintaining polymorphisms in a population |
| heterozygote advantage | when heterozygotes have greater fitness than homozygotes |
| hybrid vigour | the increased strength of various characteristics in hybrids |
| stabilising selection | a type of natural selection in which genetic diversity decreases as the population stabilises on a particular trait value |
| directional selection | when natural selection favors a single allele and therefore, allele frequency continuously shifts in one direction |
| diversifying selection | a type of evolution that simultaneously favors at both extremes of the distribution |
| sexual dimorphism | the systematic difference inbetween individuals of different sexes in the same species |
| microevolution | the occurrence of small-scale changes in allele frequencies in a population over a few generations |
| speciation | the evolutionary process by which new biological species arise |
| anagenesis | the evolution of species involving a change in gene frequency in an entire population |
| phyletic evolution | genetic changes that occur within an evolutionary line |
| cladogenesis | an evolutionary splitting event in which each branch and its smaller branches forms an evolutionary variety of sister organisms |
| branching evolution | when a species evolves separately from itself to form separate groups |
| prezygotic barriers | barriers that prevent mating between species/prevention of egg fertilisation |
| morphical species concept | when species are classified as the same species based on anatomy |
| recognition species concept | a concept that defines a species as a set of organisms that recognise each other as potential mates |
| cohesion species concept | defines a species as a group of organisms that can exchange genetically |
| ecological species concept | defines a species as a set of organisms that are adapted to a particular set of resources |
| evolutionary species concept | a species is a lineage evolving separately from others and with its own unitary evolutionary role and tendencies |
| allopatric speciation | when populations physically separated by an extrinsic barrier evolve so that if the barrier breaks down, they can't breed |
| adaptive radiation | rapid speciation of a single or a few species to fill many ecological niches |
| sympatric speciation | different species sharing the same territory |
| punctuated equilibrium | rare events that cause milestone evoltion branches |
| convergent evolution | where unclosely related organisms evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments |
Combine with other sets
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