Biology vocabulary- Diversity, change and continuity.

BIOLOGY VOCAB    EVOLUTION:

• Macro-evolution:  A change above species level which leads to more highly developed groups of organisms over time.  • Lineage: An evolutionary line. • Anagenesis: Is a change within a lineage with no branching. A species gradually changes until it may be regarded as a new species. • Cladogenesis/divergent evolution: Is the evolutionary change in which the ancestral species lineages (branches) split into two or more species. This is a very common mode of evolution.  • Ecological niches:  The roles and spaces for organisms to occupy in the ecosystem• Adaptive radiation: The rapid formation (in geological time) of many new species from a single ancestor. This occurs when there are new ecological niches to fill. An example would be the evolution of mammals.• Simplest organism:  Simple organisms such as algae, was the simplest organism to have appeared first. It survived for hundreds of millions of years before the appearance of more advanced forms.• Increase in diversity: Fossils show the increase in the diversity of families of species over time. • Invertebrates:• Vertebrates:• Animal and plant evolutionary divergence: • Transitional fossils: • Archaeopteryx:• • Background extinctions:• Periods of stasis:• Coelacanth:• Stasis:• • Novelties

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