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| Descent with modification; the idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that were different from the present-day ones; also defined more narrowly as the change in the genetic composition of a population from generation to generation. |
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| A preserved remnant or impression of an organism that lived in the past. |
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| A rock layer formed when new layers of sediment cover older ones and compress them. |
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| The scientific study of fossils. |
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| The principle that events in the past occurred suddenly and were caused by different mechanisms than those operating today. |
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| The principle stating that mechanisms of change are constant over time. |
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| Inherited characteristic of an organism that enhances its survival and reproduction in specific environments. |
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| The selective breeding of domesticated plants and animals to encourage the occurrence of desirable traits. |
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| Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry. |
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| A structure of marginal, if any, importance to an organism. Vestigial structures are historical remnants of structures that had important functions in ancestors. |
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| The branching diagram that reflects a hypothesis about evolutionary relationships among groups of organisms. |
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| The evolution of similar features in independent evolutionary lineages. |
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| Having characteristics that are similar because of convergent evolution, not homology. |
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| The slow movement of the continental plates across Earth's surface. |
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| The super-continent that formed near the end of the Paleozoic era, when plate movements brought all the landmasses of Earth together. |
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| Referring to a species that is confined to a specific, relatively small geographic area. |
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