Chapter 10

3. theory that states that natural disasters such as floods and volcanic eruptions have happened often and have shaped Earth's land forms and caused extinction of some species.
4. change in a species over time; process of biological change by which descendants come to differ from their ancestors.
5. structures that perform a similar function - in the case of flight- but are not similar in origin.
6. inherited trait that is selected for over time because it allows an organism to better survive and reproduce in its environment.
9. traces of organisms that existed in the past.
10. group of organisms so closely related that they can mate to reproduce fertile offspring.
12. selection mechanism by which individuals that have inherited beneficial adaptations produce more offspring on average than do other individuals.
15. selection process by which humans modify a species by breeding it for certain traits.
16. structure/body part that is similar in structure on different organisms but performs different functions.

1. ability of a trait to be passed from one generation to the next.
2. theory that states that the geologic processes that shape Earth are uniform through time. (Changes which happened a long time ago are still happening today)
7. all of the individuals of a species that live in the same area.
8. structure/remnants of organs or structures that functioned in an earlier ancestor and no longer serve a useful function.
11. the differences in the physical traits of an individual from those of other individuals in the group to which it belongs
13. principle that states that the changes in land forms result from slow changes over a long period of time.
14. measure of an organism's ability to survive and produce offspring relative to other members of a population in a given environment