| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Biological Species Concept | defines a species as a population or group of populations whose members have the ability to breed with one another in nature and produce fertile offspring |
| Speciation | the origin of new species |
| Macroeveolution | major evolutionary changes such as speciation |
| Reproductive Isolation | the inability of different species to interbreed |
| Geographic Isolation | occurs when a population becomes separated from the rest of the species due to geographic change |
| Adaptive Radiation | when populations of species evolve adaptations to its changed environments and form diverse new species |
| Punctuated Equilibrium | long periods of little change are broken by shorter times of more rapid change |
| Embryology | study of how organisms develop from fertilized eggs to fully formed organisms |
| Radiometric Dating | based on the amount of radioactive isotopes a fossil contains |
| Half-Life | the time it takes for 50% of the original sample to decay |
| Geologic Time Scale | organizes Earth's history into the Precambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic ears |
| Continental Drift | the movement of Earths' continents on large plates of crust |
| Mass Extinction | episode of great species loss |
| Taxonomy | branch of biology that involves the identification, naming, and classification of species |
| Binomial | two-part name for each species |
| Phylogenetic Tree | a diagram that shows hypothesized evolutionary relationships |
| Convergent Evolution | a process in which unrelated species from similar environment s have adaptations that seem very similar |
| Analogous Structures | similar adaptations, such as the wings of insect and birds |
| Derived Characters | homologous structures that do not occur outside a particular evolutionary branch (a clade) in a phylogenetic tree |
| Cladograms | phylogenetic trees that specify the derived character of clades to show relationships among organisms |
Combine with other sets
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