Evolution Test Vocabulary

Accounts for large genetic variations in isolated populations, an extreme example of genetic drift.

• Bottleneck Effect

• Founder Effect

• Gene Flow

• Mutation

Structures that are inherited from a common ancestor, but serve no actual purpose in the present-day species. Useless or not needed structures.

• Vestigial

• Functional

• Adaptive

• Convergent

Movement of alleles into or out of a population due to migration

• Gene Flow

• Genetic Drift

• Natural Selection

• Mutation

body parts in different species that have similar functions but evolved separately, meaning they do not come from a common ancestor and do not share similar structures.

• Homologous

• Analogous

• Convergent

• Divergent

Type of evolution that refers to the evolution in different lineages of structures that are similar or 'analogous', but that cannot be attributed to the existence of a common ancestor.

• Convergent Evolution

• Divergent Evolution

• Parallel Evolution

• Adaptive Radiation

an organism's ability to survive and pass its genetic material to its offspring (reproduce).

• Adaptation

• Fitness

• Survival of the Fittest

• Natural Selection

Change in the allele frequency of a population due to random chance

• Genetic Drift

• Natural Selection

• Gene Flow

• Mutation

Selection by humans for breeding of useful traits from the natural variation among different organisms

• Natural Selection

• Genetic Drift

• Artificial Selection

• Evolutionary Adaptation

Evidence of Evolution in which Structures of different species reveal similarities and differences that indicate shared ancestry or evolutionary relationships

• Comparative Anatomy

• Molecular Biology

• Genetic Drift

• Natural Selection

Type of selection that favors one extreme

• Stabilizing

• Disruptive

• Directional

• Balancing