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18 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Evolution
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Descent with modification; the idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that were different from the present- day ones; also defined more narrowly as the change in the genetic composition of a population from generation to generation.
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Fossil
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A preserved remnant or impression of an organism that lived in the past.
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Stratum
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A rock layer formed when new layers of sediment cover older ones and compress them.
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Paleontology
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The scientific study of fossils.
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Catastrophism
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The principle that events in the past occurred suddenly and were caused by different mechanisms than those operating today. See uniformitarianism.
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Uniformitarianism
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The principle that mechanisms of change are constant over time. See catastrophism.
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Adaptations
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Inherited characteristic of an organ- ism that enhances its survival and reproduc- tion in a specific environment.
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Natural selection
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A process in which individu- als that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits.
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Artificial selection
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The selective breeding of domesticated plants and animals to encourage the occurrence of desirable traits.
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Homology
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Similarity in character- istics resulting from a shared ancestry.
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Homologous structures
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Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry.
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Vestigial structures
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A feature of an organism that is a historical remnant of a structure that served a function in the organism’s ancestors.
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Evolutionary tree
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A branching diagram that reflects a hypothesis about evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms.
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Convergent evolution
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The evolution of similar features in independent evolutionary lineages.
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Analogous
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Having characteristics that are similar because of convergent evolution, not homology.
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Biogeography
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The study of the past and present geographic distribution of species.
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Pangaea
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The supercontinent that formed near the end of the Paleozoic era, when plate movements brought all the landmasses of Earth together.
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Endemic
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Referring to a species that is confined to a specific geographic area.
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