Evolution Vocabulary

2. The process through which members of a species that are best suited to their environment survive and reproduce at a higher rate than other members of the species.
5. The basic unit of heredity that consists of segments of DNA on a chromosome.
6. A process where scientists measure the amount of residual radiation remaining in a fossil to determine its age.
7. Any changes made to DNA
8. The imprint or hardened remains of a plant or animal that lived long ago.
9. Credited with being the father of modern evolutionary theory.
10. A set of widely accepted explanations of observation and phenomena.
12. When humans manipulate and select which desired traits will be passed on
13. One of several periods in Earth’s history when large numbers of species became extinct at nearly the same time.
16. Similar structures such as bones that appear in a number of different species of animals.

1. The evolution of a new species from an existing species.
3. Ancient organisms that appear to demonstrate the point where one species of organism begins to change into another organism or even where one phylum of organism is changing into another
4. A physical structure that was fully developed and functional in an earlier group of organisms but is reduced and unused in later species.
11. A characteristic, a behavior, or any inherited trait that makes a species able to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.
14. The process through which species change over time.
15. A distant or early form of an organism from which later forms descend.