Download Evolution Vocabulary

Housekeeping
• Name tags and signing the “CCC”
• I want Ms. Muirhead to know…
• Blog: I will be using Ms. Martel’s blog. DNA slides
are posted.
What features or characteristics does
your animal have that makes it well
suited for its environment/life style?
Evolution Vocabulary
Biology 11
Heritable trait: a physical
characteristic that can be passed
from one generation to the next
Gene: a sequence of DNA that
contains specific information about a
heritable trait
- genes are always located at the
same place in our DNA
Population: a group of individuals of
the same species which live in the
same area and breed together
Example: a group of sexually
reproducing mountain goats that all
live on the same mountain
Allele: an alternative form of a gene
- differ in their DNA sequence
- create the variation within a
population
Example:
gene: eye colour
allele: brown eyes
Gene pool: the collective set of
alleles in a population
i.e., all the genetic information
contained within a population
Offspring: a organism’s
child/children
Fitness: the ability to survive to
reproductive age, find a mate, and
produce offspring.
i.e., the more offspring an organisms
produces during its lifetime, the
greater its fitness
Does fitness = strong and big? NO!
Niche: the function or position of a
species within an ecological
community
i.e., a combination of an organism’s
habitat and role in the environment
What is a raccoon’s niche?
Adaptation: 2 definitions
1) process of becoming better suited
to the conditions of the environment
2) a trait that an organisms possess
which allows it to survive in its
environment
What adaptations were we discussing
earlier?
Rewrite this question:
• What features or characteristics does your animal
have that makes it well suited for its environment/life
style?
What is evolution?
• Change in a species over time
• Process that has transformed life on Earth from
ancient forms to the diversity seen today
What is evolution not?
• An explanation of the origin of life on earth
Evolution: Any change in
the heritable traits
within a population
across generations
What is Evolution Video
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhHOjC4oxh8