DEFS Flashcards
(23 cards)
Harmful Mutation
-mutation that reduces the reproductive success of an individual and is therefore selected against
Beneficial Mutation
- mutation that increases the reproductive success of an organism
- favoured by natural selection and accumulate over time
Artificial Selection
-directed breeding in which individuals that exhibit a particular trait are chosen as parents of the next generation
Extinct
-a species having no living members; no longer in existence
Adaptation
-a structure, behaviour, or physiological process that helps an organism survive and reproduce in a particular environment
Variation
-differences between individuals, which may be structural, functional or physiological
Selective Advantage
-environmental conditions that select for certain characteristics of individuals and select against other characteristics
Fitness
-the relative contribution an individual makes to the next generation by producing offspring that will survive long enough to reproduce
Mimicry
-a structural adaptation in which a harmless species resembles a harmful species in colouration or structure
Selective Advantage
-a genetic advantage that improves an organism’s chance of survival, usually in a challenging environment
Evolution
-any change in the heritable trait within a population across generations
Immutable
-unable to change
Fossil
-any ancient remain, impressions, or traces of an organism of traces of its activity that have been preserved in rocks or other mineral deposits in Earth’s crust
Palaeontology
-the scientific investigation of prehistoric life through the study of fossils
Catastrophism
-the theory that the pattern of fossils could be accounted for by a series of global catastrophes that wiped out most species on Earth
Uniformitarianism
-the theory that geological changes are slow and gradual and that natural laws and processes have not changed over time
Biogeography
-the scientific study of the geographic distribution of organisms based on both living species and fossils
Homologous Feature
-a structure within a common evolutionary origin that may serve different functions in modern species (bat wing and human arm)
Analogous Feature
-a structure that performs the same function as another but is not similar in origin or anatomical structure (bird and insect wings)
Vestigial Feature
-a rudimentary and non-functioning, or only marginally functioning, structure that is homologous to a fully functioning structure in closely related species
Neutral Mutation
-a mutation that does not result in any selective advantage or disadvantage
Natural Selection
-the way in which nature favours the reproductive success of some individuals within a population over time
Survival of the Fittest
-a phrase that has been used to describe the process of natural selection
