411 Ch 1

  1. 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.
  2. Adaptive radiation
    The divergence from a single ancestral form tha results from the exploitation of different habitats.
  3. BP
    "Before Present" A usage that avoids the need for abbreviatiosn BC and AD and is partiuclary applicable in reference to geological time
  4. Character Displacement
    The principle that closely related species living together become recognizably different even though virtually indinguishable when each occurs alone.
  5. 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.
  6. Diversifying Selection:
    Same as above
  7. Ecotone:
    The transition zone between two or more different communities that is typically richer in resources and species than each community alone.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. Hominids:
    The group of primates comprising modern and ancestral humans.
  12. 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.
  13. 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
  14. 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.
  15. Niche Divergence:
    • A phenomenon in which similar specials change their ecological role,
    • thereby reducing competition for commonly sought resources.
  16. Pongids:
    • The group of primates comprising modern gorillas, chimpanzees,
    • orangutans, and their ancestors.
  17. Punctuated Equilibrium:
    The theory that evolution is characterized by geologically
  18. Reproductive Isolation:
    • The failure of one population to breed with other populations, the most
    • important cause being geographic isolation.
  19. Sexual Selection:
    • Natural selection in which characteristics of either sex enhance success in
    • mating and are perpetuated.
  20. Species:
    • A population of organisms in which the individuals interbreed, produce
    • fertile offspring, and do not breed successfully with other populations.
  21. 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.
Author
arshifflett
ID
44596
Card Set
411 Ch 1
Description
Evolution: Then and Now
Updated