Glossaries

Welcome to the Glossaries Page. Everyone is expected to contribute to this page early in each topic. The current ﻿glossary is coloured blue﻿, the earlier topics are in pale green.
 * 1) Hit the EDIT button at top right of this table. Look for a term with your name alongside it. Over-write your name and enter the definition you have found for the term. **Highlight the definition in Bold**.
 * 2) //Include some information in italics about how your word applies to the topic and remember that you can always add more information later//. Have a look at the definitions typed by others in our class. If you think there is a better definition, or wording for the one that is there, feel free to add your note in that cell.
 * 3) If someone has modified a definition you wrote, you can respond in the cell.
 * 4) You can add a link to the source of your wording.
 * 5) Make sure you hit  when you have finished typing.
 * 6) Remember to click on the DISCUSSION tab and add a post to let us know you have contributed to the Glossary.

= Table 1 - Terms relating to HUMAN EVOLUTION = //The frontal lobe contains most of the dopamine-sensitive neurons in the cerebral cortex. The dopamine system is associated with reward, attention, long-term memory, planning, and drive.// || = Table 2 - Terms relating to EVOLUTION =
 * ==** Key Terms **== || ==**Definition**== ||
 * Acheulian || Vanessa ||
 * arboreal || Danny ||
 * bipedal || Bipedal is a form of terrestrial locomotion where an organism moves by means of its two rear limbs or legs. ||
 * brachiation || ||
 * Broca's area || Broca's area is the region of the brain that is involved in understanding language and speech production . It is located in the left frontal lobe of the brain . ||
 * brow ridge || Sean ||
 * condyle || A round projection of bone such as the occipital condyles at the back of the head ||
 * cranial vault || Michelle ||
 * dentition || Michael K ||
 * domestication || Kevin ||
 * facial angle || The slope of the lower face and jaw away from the flatness of the forehead, to measure the difference between races, the sharper the angle, the more “primitive” the face. ||
 * foramen magnum || Gayoung ||
 * frontal lobe || **Is the area of the brain located at the front of the brain and behind the forehead.**
 * gracile || Janie ||
 * Hominin || Jagnesh ||
 * Hominid || Species that are erect bipedal primate mammals including recent humans together with extinct ancestral and related forms and in some recent classifications the gorilla, chimpanzee, and orangutan are classified as hominids. ||
 * knuckle walking || A form of walking seen in quadrupeds, such as gorillas and chimpanzees. It is characterised by the animal walking by putting its weight primary on its knuckles, but still moving on all fours. ||
 * mandible || Lower jaw bone, which is 'U' shaped and stretches from one ear down to the chin area and back up again to the other ear. It is joined to the upper part of the head around the ear region ||
 * Mousterian || Justine ||
 * nomadic || Chris ||
 * nuchal crest || The nuchal crest is the ridge at the back of the skull, just above the neck. It is attached to the muscles that hold the head upright. ||
 * Olduwan || Jonathan ||
 * prehensile || Vanessa ||
 * Primate || Danny ||
 * prognathic || Prognathic is a term used to describe the positional relationship of the mandible and/or maxilla to the skeletal base where either of the jaws protrudes beyond a predetermined imaginary line in the sagittal plane of the skull. ||
 * quadruped || ============ ||
 * sagittal crest || A ridge of bone running lengthwise along the midline of the top of the skull. ||
 * savannah || Sean ||
 * valgus angle || Michael D ||
 * Wernicke's area || Michelle ||
 * zygomatic arch || Michael K ||
 * ==== Key Terms ==== || ==== Definition ==== ||
 * ==== Adaptation ==== || Vanessa ||
 * ==== Alleles ==== || Any of the alternative forms of a gene that may occur at a given locus. Mutation in the alleles is the main source of variation. ||
 * ==== Artificial Selection ==== || Artificial selection is the process of intentional modification of a species through human actions which encourage the breeding of certain traits over others. ||
 * ==== Biodiversity ==== || The variability among living organisms from all sources including terrestrial, marine and other ecosystems. This includes the diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. ||
 * ==== Biogeography ==== || Biogeography is a branch of geography that studies the past and present distribution of the world's many species. It is usually considered to be a part of physical geography as it often relates to the examination of the physical environment and how it affects species and shaped their distribution across space. ||
 * ==== Bottleneck Effect ==== || is an evolutionary event in which a significant percentage of a population or species is killed or otherwise prevented from reproducing. This causes a loss in genes and a decrease in genetic variation in the species. ||
 * ==== Clade ==== || Michael D ||
 * ==== Cline ==== || Clines consist of ecotypes (subgroups of species whose members show genetically determined adaptations to certain environmental conditions in their habitat) or forms of species that show gradual phenotypic and/or genetic differences over a geographical area, typically as a result of environmental diversity. Genetically, clines result from the change of allele frequencies within the gene pool. ||
 * ==== Coevolution ==== || Coevolution is where 2 species affect each others evolution. ||
 * ==== Competition ==== || Competition in evolutionary biology refers to the natural selection of individuals who succeed in their adaptations to be more efficient in competition with other individuals in gathering of resources and mates that their genes become the genes that are selected to be inherited by the next generation of organisms. It also reflect the interspecific and intraspecific realtionship of organisms where organisms compete for resources, mates and habitat. ||
 * ==== Conservation ==== || Is preventing the organisms or environment from loss, injury or other change. It is the preservation and careful management of the natural environment and organisms. ||
 * Continental Drift || Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other ||
 * ==== Cretaceous ==== || The Cretaceous period is one of the major divisions of the geologic timescale, reaching from the end of theJurassic period (about 135 mya) to the beginning of the Paloecene epoch of the Teritary period (65 mya). The end of the Cretaceous also defines the boundary between the Mesozic and Cenozoic eras. ||
 * ==== Darwin, Charles ==== || India ||
 * ==== Deme ==== || A local population of organisms of the same kind, especially one in which the genetic mix is similar throughout the group. ||
 * ==== Directional Selection ==== || Directional selection is a particular mode of natural selection, directional selection occurs when natural selection favors a single phenotype and therefore allele frequency continuously shifts in one direction. ||
 * ==== Disruptive Selection ==== || Disruptive selection is the favouring of two extremes rather than the intermediate. ||
 * Endemic species || Endemic species are species that are unique to a location or zone. This means that an endemic species will only evolve in one particular restricted location, therefore the mechanisms of evolution will have a greater impact on these isolated species. ||
 * ==== Extinction ==== || The end or the dying out of a species ||
 * ==== Fitness ==== || The capability of an individual of certain genotype to reproduce, and usually is equal to the proportion of the individual's genes in all the genes of the next generation. If differences in individual genotypes affect fitness, then the frequencies of the genotypes will change over generations; the genotypes with higher fitness become more common. ||
 * ==== Fossil ==== || Any phyiscal evidence showing information about organisms from the past. This can include impressions showing the shape of an organism or mineralised remains, fossilised skeletons. Fossils are considered to be such evidence found buried within the Earth's crust. ||
 * ==== Fossil Record ==== || Nathaniel ||
 * ==== Founder Effect ==== || the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population ||
 * ==== Continental Drift ==== || Jay ||
 * ==== Gene Flow ==== || Gene flow is a change in gene frequency due to migration. ||
 * ==== Gene Pool ==== || A gene pool is the complete set of unique alleles in a species or population. ||
 * ==== Genetic Drift ==== || This is the change of frequency of the inheritance and occurrence of a particular allele in a population of a species that happen due to random sampling or chance, hence not by the reproductive success of the parents. ||
 * ==== Gondwana ==== || India ||
 * ==== Introduced Species ==== || Jagnesh ||
 * ==== Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste ==== || Lamarck believed that evolution occurred and worked in accordance with natural laws. He stressed two main ideas one being that the environment was the reason for changes in animals and the second being that life is structured in an orderly manner and that many different parts of all bodies make it possible for the organic movements of animals ||
 * ==== Meteorites ==== || a fire ball of rock from outer space ||
 * ==== Mutation ==== || A permanent, sudden and spontaneous change in the nucleotide sequence in a gene or chromosome. Such a change may result in the creation of a new trait, if the mutated allele is not lethal, in which case the organism would die and not be able to contribute its gene to the gene pool. Mutations provide new alleles on which natural selection can act upon. Therefore a benefical mutation assists the process of evolution since it is selected for by the environment and may help the survival of the species. ||
 * ==== Native Species ==== || Native species are species that normally lives and thrives in a particular ecosystem. This can include any species that developed with the surrounding habitat, and can be assisted by or affected by a new species. ||
 * ==== Natural Selection ==== || The mechanism by which better adapted organisms are more likely to produce more viable offspring. " Survival of the fittest." The organisms which have the best adaptations for the environment pass their genes to the next generation. ||
 * ==== Niche ==== || In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in an ecosystem.According to the competitive exclusion principle, no two species can occupy the same niche in the same environment for a long time ||
 * ==== Palaeobiology ==== || A new science, combining natural science biology and palaeontology. Palaeobiological research uses biological field research of current biota and of fossils millions of years old to answer questions about the molecular evolution and the evolutionary history of life. ||
 * ==== Plate Tectonics ==== || Vanessa ||
 * ==== Population ==== || Michael D ||
 * ==== Speciation ==== || Speciation is the emergence of new species by the mechanisms of evolution. A new species emerges when the new species is unable to breed naturally with the species from which it evolved, making them two distinct groups. ||
 * ==== Species ==== || A group of naturally interbreeding (or potentially interbreeding) individuals. Reproductively isolated from other groups. ||
 * ==== Stabilising Selection ==== || Evolution that occurs when an organism is well adapted to it's environment. It is a selection towards the "normal" selecting against extreme high or low values of a trait. This will result in a decrease of varitation of a species which is beneficial at the present time. This can be modeled with the standard bell curve, after selection the percentage of mean values will increase and the standard deviation will decrease. ||
 * ==== Variation ==== || Nathaniel ||
 * ==== Vestigial Structure ==== || An structure (or organ) that was once useful in an animal's evolutionary past, but now has no apparent nor predictable function. ||
 * ==== Volcanism ==== || Volcanism brings magma from the mantle within a planet and rises to the surface as a volcanic eruption. This type of natural disaster could result in the bottleneck effect. In some cases, rising magma can cool and solidify without reaching the surface of a planet. Instead, the cooled and solidified igneous mass freezes within the crust of a planet to form an igneous intrusion. ||
 * ==== Wallace, Alfred Russel ==== || Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 - 1913) was one of the 19th century's most remarkable intellectuals. His link to Charles Darwin as the co-discoverer in 1858 of evolution by natural selection would alone have secured his place in history, but he went on to make very many other significant contributions, not just to biology. ||