Download Additional Review Notes – Natural Selection and

Additional Review Notes – Natural Selection and Evolution
What to study:
Review packet
Additional notes
Reading Science – Natural Selection and Evolution
Review terms on Unit Overview – These are the most basic vocabulary terms you need to know,
but you need to know other terms used in the above materials as well.
Evolution – Accumulation of traits slowly over time, over many generations, in a population; Combines
genetic variation and natural selection.
Natural Selection – Reaction of a population to its environment; pressure by environment on population
to change. Has 4 principles – see review packet and Chapter 10, Section 3.
Genetic variation – Differences in traits in a population due to differences in the DNA of individuals,
sometimes due to mutations.
Evidence for evolution –
Homologous structures
Vestigial Organs or Structures
Embryology – Similarity of embryos; used in comparing
living organisms.
DNA – Presence of DNA in all living organisms indicates that
they all have a common ancestor.
Fossils – Older fossils in lower layers of sedimentary rock
Key to natural selection – Some organisms have traits that not only make it more likely that they will
survive but also reproduce. Reproduction is the key to natural selection.
Gene pool – All the alleles the members of a species (in a given geographic location) share, as in the
gene pools available to the populations of mice on opposite sides of the mountain in the review packet
example. Note: As I mentioned in class, you ARE expected to know this term on the test, although it
was not part of the material we studied before Christmas.
Remember the difference between natural selection and selective breeding (where humans control
the traits bred for, in domestic animals).
Survival advantage – The greater probability that an organism will survive than another organism
because of its adaptations (term used in the Crazy Traits lab).
Adaptations of species or populations come about because of existing traits that become a survival
advantage when there is a change in the environment, NOT because of new traits that suddenly appear.