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Biogenesis
States that all living things come from other living things
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Spontaneous Generation
Process which living things could also arise from nothing
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Radiometric Dating
Method of establishing the age of material
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Mass Number
An isotope is the total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus
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Radioactive Decay
When isotopes nuclei release particles or radiant energy or both, until the nuclei became stable
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Radioactive Isotopes
Isotopes that their nuclei release particles or rasiant energy, or both, until the nuclei becaome stable
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Half-life
The length of time it takes for one-half size sample of an isotope to decay to a stable form
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Microshperes
Structures that are spherical in shape and are composed of many protein molecules that are organizedas a membrane
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Coacervates
Collection of droplets that are composed of molecules of different types, including lipids, amino acids, and sugars
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Ribozyme
RNA molecule that can act as a catalyst and promote a specific chemical reaction
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Archea
A related group of unicellular organisms, many of which thrive under extremely harsh environmental conditions
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Chemosynthesis
CO2 serves as a carbon source for the assembly of organic molecules
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Ozone
Is poisonous to both plant and animal life, but absorbs the ultraviolent radiation from the sun
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Endosymbiosis
Theory that suggests that between about 2.0 billion and 1.5 billion years ago, a type of small aerobic prokaryote was engulfed by and began to live and reproduce inside of a larger, anaerobic prokaryote
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Evolution
The development of new types of organisms from preexisting types of organisms over time
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Natural Selection
The theory that states that the more adapted will survive and reproduce
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Overproduction
More offspring can be produced than can survive to maturity
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Genetic Variation
Individuals have different traits
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Struggle to Survive
Individuals must compete with each other in what Darwin called a "struggle for existance"
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Adaptation
A trait that makes an individual successful in its environment
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Differential Reproduction
Organisms with the best adaptations are most likely to survive and reproduce
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Fitness
A measure of an individual's hereditary contribution to the next generation
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Fossil
The remains or traces of an organism that died long ago
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Superpostion
Principle that states that if the rock strata at a location have not been disturbed, the lowest stratum was formed before the strata above it
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Relative Age
Its age compared to that of other fossils by reffering to the geologic time scale and to records of known fossils
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Absolute Age
The time since formation
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Biogeography
The study of the locations of organisms around the world
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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
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Analogous Structures
Closely related functions but do not derive from the same ancestrial structure
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Vestigial Structure
Structures that seem to serve no function but resemble structures with functional roles in related organisms
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Phylogeny
The relationships by ancestry among groups of organisms
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Convergent Evolution
The process by which diifferent species evolve similar traits
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Divergent Evolution
A process in which the descendants of a single ancestor diversify into species that each fit different parts of the environment
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Adaptive Radiation
Pattern of divergence
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Artificial Selection
This process occurs when a human breeder chooses individuals that will parent the next generation
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Coevolution
When two or more species have evolved adaptations to each other's influence
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