Reading: Evolution

Vocab

Evolution: Change in characteristics of living things over time.

Natural Selection: Organisms better fitted to the environment are more likely to survive and reproduce than organisms who aren't fitted to the environment.

Fitness: How adapted an organism it to its environment

Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics: Mistaken idea that animals whose traits changed in their lifetime could pass on those traits to their offspring

Artificial Selection: A human practice to select certain traits wanted in a certain species.

Comparative Anatomy: Study of the differences and similarities between different species.

Homologous Structure: Organisms that have similar structures to organisms of other species because they descend from the same ancestor.

Analogous Structure: Animals with analogous structures inhabit the same types of environments, or perform tasks that require them to have a certain trait. These animals must then adapt, causing them to have similar traits that perform the same job, but this does not mean that their evolutionary history is related to each other.

Comparative Embryology: Study of the differences and similarities between different species as embryos.

Vestigial Structure: Structure found in an organism that has no obvious use.

Biogeography: The study of the environmental role of why animals life in a certain area.

Adaptive Radiation: Process by which a single species evolves into many new species to fill available riches.