AP Biology Chapter 22 Terms (Descent with Modification – A Darwinian View of Life) – Flashcards

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evolution
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descent with modification, where modern species are descendants of ancestral species that were different from present-day species
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pattern and process of evolution
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pattern: revealed by data, observations of the natural world process: mechanisms that produce the observed pattern of change
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Aristotle
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(384-322 BC) believed species were fixed and had certain affinities (likenesses) with each other
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scala naturae (scale of nature)
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Aristotle's theory that organisms could be arranged on a scale of increasing complexity
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Carolus Linnaeus
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(1707-1778) interpreted the Old Testament that each species was created for a specific purpose and developed binomial nomenclature
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binomial nomenclature
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a format for naming species (genus, species) that contrasted Aristotle's linear hierarchy by grouping similar species in increasingly general categories
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fossils
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the remains of organisms from the past, most found in sedimentary rocks
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strata
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superimposed layers of rock that are compressed when new layers of sediment cover the older ones that often contain fossils
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paleontology
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the study of fossils
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Georges Cuvier
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French paleontologist who opposed the idea of evolution and developed the idea of catastrophism
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catastrophism
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the principle that catastrophes eliminated species whole, and each boundary in strata represented a catastrophe
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James Hutton
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(b.1726) believed Earth's geographic features could be explained by gradual mechanisms still operating today (i.e. valleys formed by rivers)
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Charles Lyell
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(b. 1797) used Hutton's ideas to develop uniformitarianism
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uniformitarianism
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the idea that mechanisms of change are constant over time
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Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
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proposed an incorrect mechanism for how life changes over time
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Lamarck's Theory of Evolution
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he compared living species with fossil formations in several lines of descent using several incorrect principles: use and disuse, inheritance of acquired characteristics; proposed that organisms have an innate drive to become more complex
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use and disuse
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(Lamarck) the idea that parts of the body that are used extensively become larger and stronger, and those that aren't used deteriorate
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inheritance of acquired characteristics
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(Lamarck) an organism can pass these characteristics down to their offspring (from use and disuse)
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artificial selection
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a process where humans have modified other species by selective breeding
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Thomas Malthus
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believed that much of human suffering (disease, famine, war) was a result of humanity's potential to increase faster than food supplies and other resources - led to Darwin discovering a relationship between natural selection and the capacity of organisms to overreproduce
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4 types of data that show evolution
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1. direct observation of evolutionary change 2. homology 3. the fossil record 4. biogeography
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homology
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similarity resulting from common ancestry
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homologous structures
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structures that are similar in different species but have different functions
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vestigial structures
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remnants of features that served a function in the organism's ancestors (snakes - pelvic and leg bones)
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pseudogenes
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inactive, vestigial genes that once were translated into useful structures in our ancestors but no longer serve a function
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evolutionary tree
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a diagram that reflects evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms that is a hypothesis of our evolutionary descent
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convergent evolution
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the independent evolution of similar features in differential lineages (similar adaptations in similar environments of different organisms)
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analogous structures
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features that share similar function but not common ancestry (the opposite of homologous structures)
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biogeography
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the geographic distribution of species influenced by many factors, including continental drift
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continental drift
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the slow movement of Earth's continents over time
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Pangaea
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(250 MYA) the supercontinent composed of all Earth's continents
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endemic
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organisms that are found nowhere else in the world (usually endemic species are found on islands)
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