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Adaptation
The process of develping or enhancing structural,physiological, or behavioral characteristics that improve changes for survival and reproduction in a give environment. As a noun, th eterm is the characteristic itself.
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Adaptive radiation
The divergence from a single ancestral form tha results from the exploitation of different habitats.
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BP
"Before Present" A usage that avoids the need for abbreviatiosn BC and AD and is partiuclary applicable in reference to geological time
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Character Displacement
The principle that closely related species living together become recognizably different even though virtually indinguishable when each occurs alone.
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Directional Selection:
Natural selection in which there is a progressive shift toward the extreme of a particular characteristic, usually occurring in response to a steady change in environmental condition. Also known as Diversifying Selection.
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Diversifying Selection:
Same as above
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Ecotone:
The transition zone between two or more different communities that is typically richer in resources and species than each community alone.
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Founder Effect:
The derivation of a new population from a single or few individuals in which the founding population’s genetic composition represents a very small sample of the genetic pool of the original population; subsequently, natural selection yeilds gene combinations different from the original population.
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Genetic Drift:
- Random fluctuations in the genetic composition of one or both groupos
- of a separated population such that the genes among the offspring do not
- perfectly represent the parental population’s genetic composition.
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Gradualism:
- A theory holding that the origin and evolution of species and higher
- orders occur more or less continuously over relatively long periods of
- time.
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Hominids:
The group of primates comprising modern and ancestral humans.
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Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics:
- A theory of evolution proposed by Jean Baptist de Lemarck in the early
- nineteenth century which states that characteristics acquired by an
- organism during its lifetime are transmitted to the reproductive cells
- and inherited by the next generation.
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Natural Selection:
- A theory of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin, and independently by Alfred Russell Wallace, I which variations in an organisms’ structure,
- physiology, or behavior that improve survival are preferentially
- transmitted to future generations
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Neo-Darwinism:
- The theory of evolution incorporation Darwin’s theory of evolution of
- natural selection and the science of genetics (Mendelism) that provides
- the explanation of for the source of variation.
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Niche Divergence:
- A phenomenon in which similar specials change their ecological role,
- thereby reducing competition for commonly sought resources.
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Pongids:
- The group of primates comprising modern gorillas, chimpanzees,
- orangutans, and their ancestors.
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Punctuated Equilibrium:
The theory that evolution is characterized by geologically
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Reproductive Isolation:
- The failure of one population to breed with other populations, the most
- important cause being geographic isolation.
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Sexual Selection:
- Natural selection in which characteristics of either sex enhance success in
- mating and are perpetuated.
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Species:
- A population of organisms in which the individuals interbreed, produce
- fertile offspring, and do not breed successfully with other populations.
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Stabilizing Selection:
- Natural selection in which innovation is inhibited, extremes tend to be eliminated, and usually occurring in an
- environment that change little in space time. Also known maintenance
- selection.
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