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25 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Scientific method
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A form of knowledge-seeking that entails making observations, formulating an explanatory hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and confirming, amending, or rejecting the hypothesis.
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Stratigraphy
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The study and description of a vertical series of sediment or rock layers that have accumulated over time.
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Fossils
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The preserved remains of a plant or animal of the past, usually a bone, a tooth, or an impression such as a footprint or leaf impression.
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Taxon
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Any group recognized at any level in the Linnaean hierarchy (plural, taxa).
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Linnean taxonomy
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A hierarchical structure for classifying living creatures that was introduced by Linnaeus in 1758; its basic unit is the species.
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Species
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A group of interbreeding organisms reproductively isolated from other such groups.
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DNA
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Abbreviation for deoxyribose nucleic acid, a molecule containing the genetic instructions that guide the development and functioning of all living organisms.
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Genomes
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The totality of genetic information encoded in the DNA of an individual.
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Natural selection
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The process by which organism better adapted to the environment reproduce more effectively compared with less well adapted forms.
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Genotype
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A set of alleles an organism possesses.
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Gene
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A DNA segment that carries genetic information.
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Microevolution
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Evolutionary changes that operate at the level of the individual and over short periods of time.
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Macroevolution
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Large-scale events that take place during the evolutionary history of a group of organisms, including adaptive radiations, speciation, and extinction.
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Phenotype
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An organism's size, shape, appearance, or internal structure; also called morphology
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Mendel's Laws
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Law of Segregation, Law of Independent Assortment
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Allele
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Any one of a number of DNA codings that occupies a given position on a chromosome.
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Chromosome
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A single macromolecule of DNA in a cell; it contains many genes.
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Mitosis
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The process whereby one somatic cell with 46 chromosomes divides into two cells, during which time each strand of the genetic material replicates itself so that each daughter cell also has 46 chromosomes.
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Meiosis
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The process by which sex cells, or gametes, are produced. Also called "reduction division" because the number chromosomes is reduced from 46 to 23.
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Mutation
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An error made when DNA is copied at the time of cell division.
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Genetic drift
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The effect on a population caused by change through which some alleles, over generations, become more frequent or more rare.
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Speciation
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A form of macroevolutionary change in which new species are produced either by the splitting of an existing species into two new species or by the transformation of an existing species into a different descendant.
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Adaptive radiation
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The macroevolution process of rapid speciation of one or a few species as an adaptation to a new ecological niche.
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Extinction
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A form of macro-evolutionary change that occurs when a living species ceases to exist or, in paleoanthropology, when one no longer finds fossil evidence of a species.
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Creationism
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The Bible-based belief that all species date from the Day of Creation and have always been the way they are now.
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