Evolution Vocab

2. The scientific discipline of naming and classifying groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics.
4. A scientific discipline focused on classifying organisms and determining their evolutionary relationships.
5. A method of determining the age of a fossil by comparing its placement with that of fossils in other layers of sedimentary rock.
8. The evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species, often categorized as either allopatric or sympatric.
9. A species or group of species that is closely related to, but not a member of, the group of species being studied; used as a basis of comparison in phylogenetics.
10. The transfer of alleles into or out of a population due to the movement of fertile individuals or their gametes, which tends to reduce genetic differences between populations.

1. The study of how selective forces change a population through changes in allele and genotypic frequencies.
3. The rapid evolution of diversely shaped species from a common ancestor, often following the colonization of a new, distant environment like an archipelago.
6. Evolutionary change below the species level; change in the allele frequencies in a population over generations.
7. A branching diagram used to show phylogenetic relationships based on shared derived characteristics.