| A | B |
|---|
| origin outside of earth | extraterrestrial origin |
| developing by itself through natural chemical and physical processes | spontaneous origin |
| tiny, abiotically-produced vesicle formed by a double layer of amino acids | microsphere |
| dating of objets through the measurement of realtive proportions of certain radioisotopes and the products of their radioactive decay | radiometric dating |
| radioactive isotopes | radioisotopes |
| the period of time it takes for one-half of a radioisotope to decay | half-life |
| a group of individuals that belong to the same species, live in a defined area, and breed with others in the group | population |
| the process by which populations change in response to their environement | natural selection |
| the changing of a species that results in its being better suited to its environment | adaptation |
| change that occurs within a species over time | microevolution |
| the condition in which two populations of the same species are separated from one another | isolation |
| group of organisms that look alike and are capable of producing fertile offspring in nature | species |
| the permanent disapperance of a species | extinct |
| change among species over time | macroevolution |
| the preserved or minearlized remains or traces of an organism that lived long ago | fossil |
| scientists who study fossils | paleontologists |
| a diagram which shows how organisms are related through eveolution | family tree |
| a species form which two or more species diverged | common ancestor |
| structures that share a common ancestry | homologous structures |
| structure reduced in size and function; considered to be evidence of an organism's evolutionary past | vestigial structure |
| the model of evolution in which gradual change over a long period of time leads to speices formation | gradualism |
| model of evolution in which periods of rapid change in species are separated by periods of little or no change | punctuated equilibrium |
| the darkening of populations of organisms over time in response to industrial pollution | industrial melanism |
| selection that acts in opposite directions | balancing selection |
| natural selection that causes the frequency of a particular allele to move in one direction | directional selection |
| the accumulation of differences between groups | divergence |
| the process by which new species form | speciation |
| populations of the same species that differ genetically because of adaptations to different living conditions | ecological races |
| prevention of mating betwn. formerly interbreeding groups or the inability of these groups to produce fertile offspring | reproductive isolation |
| group of photosynthetic eubacteria | cyanobacteria |
| one of the two kingdoms of prokaryotes | eubacteria |
| one of the two kingdoms of prokaryotes; represented oday by a few groups of bacteria inhabiting extreme environements | archaebacteria |
| first eukaryotes | protists |
| episode during which large numbers of species become extinct | mass extinction |
| molecule containing three oxygen molecules that is present mainly in the upper atmosphere, whichre it shilds the Earth from ultraviolet radiation | ozone |
| mutualistic association between a fungus and a plant's roots, in which the fungus absorbs water and nutrients for the plant and the plant supplies food to the fungus | mycorrhizae |
| ecological interaction in which two or more species live together in a close, long-term relationship | symbiosis |
| a kind of animal with a hard outer skeleton and jointed appendages | arthropod |
| animals with backbones | vertebrates |
| the move'mt of Earth's giant land masses that has result in the present-day position of the continents | continental drift |
| the mammalian group that includes prosimians, monkeys, apes, and humans | primates |
| a group of primates that includs lorises, tarsiers, and lemurs | prosimian |
| term describing animals that are active during the day and sleep at night | diurnal |
| the thumb finger that stands at an angle from the other fingers and can be bent for grasping | opposable thumb |
| member of the family Hominidae of the order Primates; charaterise by opposable thumbs, no tail, longer lower limbs, and erect bipedalism | hominids |
| able to walk upright on two legs | bipedal |
| all of the individuals of a species that live together in one place at one time | population |
| the statistical study of population | demography |
| the number of individuals in a population | population size |
| the way in which the individuals of the population are arranged | dispersion |
| a hypothetical population that has key characteristics of the real population being studied | model |
| J-shaped curve showing the rapid increase in an exponentially growing population | exponential growth curve |
| the population szie that an environment can sustain, K | carrying capacity |
| model of popuation growth that assumes finite resource levels limit pop. growth | logistic model |
| species characterized by rapid growth, high fertility, short lifespan, and exponential pop. growth | r-strategists |
| species cahracterized by slow maturation, low fertility, slow population growth, and high competitive ability | K-strategists |
| states that populations do not change unless eveolutionary forces act upon them | Hardy=Weinberg principle |
| the relative abundance of an alllele of a gene whtin a major population, expressed as a percentage | allele frequencies |
| the movem't of alelles into or out of a population | gene flow |
| mating with relatives, or inbreeding, a type of random mating that cuaes the frequency of heterozygotes to be much less than that predicted by the Hardy-Weinberg equation | nonrandom mating |
| change in allele frequency that appears to occur randomly | genetic drift |
| genetic variation in a popul;ation that resutls from more than one allele for a gene | genetic polymorphism |
| a characteristic influenece by several genes | polygenic trait |
| bell-shaped curve that results when the values of a triat in a population are plotted against their frequency | normal distribution |
| nautral selection that causes the frequency of a particular allele to move in one direction | direcitional selection |
| type of natural selection in which the average form of the trait is favored and becomes more common | stabilizing selection |
| natural seletion in which individuals with extreme forms of a trait have an advantage | diosruptive selection |
