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Biodiversity
Chapter 25 vocab
17
Biology
Undergraduate 1
03/16/2011

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Term
macroevolution
Definition
Evolutionary change above the species level, including the origin of a new group of organisms or a shift in the broad pattern of evolutionary change over a long period of time. Examples of ___ include the appearance of major new features of organisms and the impact of mass extinctions on the diversity of life and its subsequent recovery
Term
protobiont
Definition
a collection of abiotically produced molecules surrounded by a membrane or membrane-like structure
Term
ribozymes
Definition
an RNA molecule that functions as an enzyme, catalyzing reactions during RNA splicing.
Term
radiometric dating
Definition
a method for determining the absolute ages of rocks and fossils, based on the half-life of radioactive isotopes.
Term
half-life
Definition
the amount of time it takes for 50% of a sample of radioactive isotope to decay.
Term
geologic record
Definition
The division of Earth's history into time periods, groups=ed into three eons--Archaean, Proterozoic, and Phanerozoic--and further subdivided into eras, periods and epochs.
Term
stromatolites
Definition
layered rock that results from the activities of prokaryotes that bind thin films of sediment togehter
Term
endosymbiosis
Definition
a process in which a unicellular organism (the "host") engulfs another cell, which lives within the host cell and ultimately becomes an organelle in the host cell; also refers to the hypothesis that mitochondria and plastids were formerly small prokaryotes that began living within larger cells
Term
serial endosymbiosis
Definition
a hypothesis for the origin of eukaryotes consisting of a sequence of endosymbiotic events in which mitochondria, chloroplasts, and perhaps other cellular structures were derived from small prokaryotes that had been engulfed by larger cells.
Term
cambrian explosion
Definition
a relatively brief time in geologic history when large, hard-bodied forms of animals with most of the major body plans known today appeared in the fossil record. This burst of evolutionary change occurred about 535-525 million years ago.
Term
continental drift
Definition
The slow movement of the continental plates across Earth's surface
Term
pangaea
Definition
the supercontinent that formed near the end of the Paleozoic era, when plate movements brought all the landmasses of Earth together.
Term
mass extinction
Definition
period of time when global environmental changes lead to the elimination of a large number of species throughout Earth.
Term
adaptive radiations
Definition
period of evolutionary change in which groups of organisms form many new species whose adaptations allow them to fill vacant ecological roles in their communites
Term
heterochrony
Definition
Evolutionary change in the timing or rate of an organism's development
Term
paedomorphosis
Definition
The retention in an adult organism of the juvenile features of its evolutionary ancestors
Term
homeotic genes
Definition
Any of the master regulatory genes that control placement and spatial organization of body parts in the developmental fate of groups of cells.
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