VOCABULARY: 

 

 

Evolution: The development of new types of orgamisms from preexisting types of organisms over time.

 

Strata: Rock layers that hold fossils of different kinds of organisms.

 

Natural Selection: The mechanism for descent with modification.

 

Fitness: Measure of an individual's hereditary contribution to the next generation.

 

Fossil: The remains or traces of an organism that died long ago.

 

Superposition: The principle which states that if the rock strata at a location have not been disturbed, the lowest stratum was formed before the strata above it. 

 

Relative Age: The fossil's age compared to that of other fossils.

 

Absolute Age: The time since formation of the fossil.

 

Transitional Species: Species that have features that are intermediate between those of hypothesized ancestors and later descendant species.

 

Biogeography: The study of the locations of organisms around the world.

 

Homologous Structures: Anatomical structures that occur in different species and that originated by heredity from a structure in the most recent common ancestor of the species.

 

Analogous Structures: Structures that have closely related functions but do not derive from the same ancestral structure.

 

Vestigial Structures: Structures that seem to serve no function but that resemble structures with functional roles in related organisms.

 

Phylogeny: The relationships by ancestry among groups of organisms.

 

Convergent Evolution: The process by which different species evolve similar traits.

 

Divergent Evolution: The process in which the descendants of a single ancestor diversify into species that each fit different parts of the environment.

 

Adaptive Radiation: The pattern of divergence.

 

Artificial Selection: The process by which a human breeder chooses individuals that will parent the nect generation. 

 

Coevolution: When two or more species have evolved adaptations to each other's influence. 

 

Biodiversity: The variety of organisms considered at all levels from populations to ecosystems.

 

Taxonomy: The science of describing, naming, classifying organisms.

 

Taxon: Any particular group within a taxonomic system.

 

Levels of Classification: Domain, Kingdom, Phyla, Class/Division, Order, Family, Genus, and Species.

 

Binomial Nomenclature: The system of two-part names (Genus, Species Identifier).

 

Subspecies: Variations of a species that live in different geographic areas.

 

Phylogenetics: The analysis of the evolutionary or ancestral relationships among taxa.

 

Phylogenetic Diagram (phylogenetic tree): A diagram that indicates how closely related a subset of taxa are thought to be.

 

Cladistics: A system of phylogenetic analysis that uses shared and derived characters as the only criteria for grouping taxa.

 

Shared Character: A feature that all members of a group have in common.

 

Derived Character: A feature that evolved only within the group under consideration.

 

Clade: The group of organisms that includes an ancestor plus all of its descendants.

 

Cladogram: A phylogenetic diagram which includes clades.

 

Domain Bacteria: Consists of small, single-celled prokaryotic organisms that usually have a cell wall and reproduce by cellular fission.

 

Domain Archaea: Consists of prokaryotes that have distinctive cell membranes and other unique biochemical and genetic properties.

 

Theory of Endosymbiosis: Eukaryotic cells arose when ancient prokaryotic cells began to live together as one cell.

 

Domain Eukarya: Consists of eukaryotic organisms, that have large cells, a true nucleus, and complex cellular organelles.

 

Kingdom Eubacteria: Aligns with the domain Bacteria.

 

Kingdom Archaebacteria: Aligns with the domain Archaea.

 

Kingdom Protista: Consists of eukaryotes that are not plants, animals, or fungi.

 

Kingdom Fungi: Consists of eukaryotic, heterotrophic oranisms that are unicellular or multicellular.

 

Kingdom Plantae: Consists of eukaryotic, multicellular plants.

 

Kingdom Animalia: Consists of animals that are eukaryotic, multicellular, and heterotrophic organisms that develop from embryos.

 

Ecology: The study of the interaction between organisms and the living and nonliving components of their environemnt. 

 

Interdependence: The quality that organisms possess of interacting with other organisms in their surroundings and with the nonliving portion of their environment in order to survive.

 

Ecological Models: Models to represent or dscribe the components of an eclogical systen.

 

Biosphere: The thin volume of Earth and its atmosphere that supports life.

 

Ecosystem: Includes all of the organisms and the nonliving environment found in a paticular place.

 

Community: All the interacting organisms living in an area.

 

Population: Includes all the members of a species that live in one place at one time. 

 

Biotic Factors: The living components of the environment.

 

Abiotic Factors: The physical and chemical characteristics of the environment.

 

Tolerance Curve: A graph of performance versus values of an environmental variable, such as tempeature, is called a tolerance curve.

 

Acclimation: A process through which some organisms can adjust to their tolerance to abiotic factors.

 

Conformers: Organisms that do not regulate their internal conditions; they change as their external environment changes.

 

Regulators: Organisms that use energy to control some of their internal conditions.

 

Dormancy: A state of reduced activity.

 

Migration: The process of moving to a more favorable habitat.

 

Niche: The specific role, or way of life, of an organism withing its environment.

 

Generalists: Species with broad niches; they can tolerate a range of conditions and use a variety of resources.

 

Specialists: Species that have narrow niches.

 

Producers: Autotrophs that capture energy and use it to make organic molecules (molecules that contain carbon).

 

Chemosynthesis: The process of using energy stored in inorganic molecules to produce carbohydrates.

 

Gross primary productivity: The rate at which producers in an ecosystem capture the energy of sunlight by producing organic compounds.

 

Biomass: The organic material that has been produced in an ecosystem.

 

Net primary productivity: The rate at which biomass accumulates (expressed in units of energy per unit area per year or in units of dry organic mass per unit area per mass).

 

Consumers: Heterotrophs that consume energy by eating organic molecules made by other organisms.

 

Herbivores: Consumers that eat producers.

 

Carnivores: Consumers that eat other consumers. 

 

Omnivores: Eat both producers and consumers.

 

Detritivores: Consumers that feed on the "garbage" of an ecosystem. 

 

Decomposers: Detritivores, such as bacteria and fungi, that cause decay by breaking down complex molecules into simpler molecules.

 

Trophic Level: Indicates the organism's position in a sequence of energy transfers.

 

Food Chain: A single pathway of feeding relationships among organisms in an ecosystem that results in energy trannsfer. 

 

Food Web: The interrelated food chains in an ecosystem.