| A | B |
|---|
| Adaptation | A characteristic that improves an individual's ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. |
| Analogous Structures | Structures, such as a bat's wing and a fly's wing, that have the same function, but the similarity is superficial and reflects an adaptation to similar environments, not a common ancestry. |
| Biodiversity | The number of species within a specific habitat. |
| Biological Evolution | The change over time in populations of related organisms. |
| Charles Darwin | 1809-1882 English naturalist and scientist whose theory of evolution through natural selection was first published in 'On The Origin of the Species" in 1859. |
| Genetic Variation | Differences among individuals in the composition of their genes or other DNA sequences. |
| Geologic Evolution | The study of the changes that have occurred to the earth itself. |
| Homologous Structure | Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry. |
| Mutation | A change in DNA that can aid the organism in survival or limit the organism's survival. |
| Natural Selection | A process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits. |
| Species | A group of similar organisms that can breed and produce fertile offspring. |
| Vestigial Structures | Remnants of organs or structures that had a function in an early ancestor. |
