What does the principle of common decent with modification state?
It holds that particular groups, or species, of living things can undergo modification in successive generations, with such change sometimes resulting int he formation of new, separate species.
What's natural selection?
Process in which the differential adaptation of individual oganisms to their environment selects those traits that'll be passed on with greater frequency from one generation to the next.
What's radiometric dating? How's it used for our purposes?
A techniqe for determining the age of objects by measuring the decay of the radioactive elements they contain. Scientists have been able to date objects from nearly the formation of the Earth to the present
What's morphology?
The study of the physical forms that organisms take.
What's embryology?
The study of how animals develop - from fertilization to birth.
Why do the morphic forms of organisms differ in physical characteristics to the embryotic forms of the same organism?
Evolutionary biologists postulate that hte four mammals evolved from a common ancestor, adapting this 1-2-5 structure over time in accordance with their varying needs (land, air, water, etc.)
Some organisms have homologous features with each other. Almost all Eukaryotic organisms have homologous feature with each other in their embryotic stages. Why?
Evolutionary biologists postulate that hte four mammals evolved from a common ancestor, adapting this 1-2-5 structure over time in accordance with their varying needs (land, air, water, etc.)
The principles of common descent with modification holds that groups of living things can undergo modifications that, over time, can lead to the formation of new __________ & that all living thigns on Earth are descended from a __________.
species; common ancestor
The principle of natural selection hold that individual organisms will vary with respect to how well they're __________ to their environment, & that this difference will determine the __________ with which the traits of individual will be passed on from one generation to the next.
adapated; frequency
Does evolutionary theory support the idea that human beings sit at the apex of an evolutionary tree?
No; the theory supports the idea that, like all species, human beings are descended from other species. Thus, human beings sit on one ordinary branch of the evolutionary tree.
True or False: Charles Darwin was the first person to perceive common descent with modification.
False; It was pre-dated Darwin, but Darwin was the first person to perceive natural selection as an evolutionary mechanism
The co-discoverer of natural selection was __________.
Alfred Russel Wallace
In his voyage around the world, Darwin gained the most insight from the time he spent on the __________ Islands, which lie off the coast of __________.
Galapagos; South America
The age of the Earth's been established through the use of __________, in which scientists test for the __________ of parent & daughter elements in a given sample of rock/other material.
radiometric dating; proportions
__________ features are features in different species that are the same in structure owing to inheritance from a __________.
Homologous; common ancestor
The term biogeography refers to the __________ of Earth's organisms.
