Friday, February 13, 2009

Biology

Vocabulary:

Clade: a group of organisms that share a common ancestor

Cladistics: hierarchichal classification of organisms based on evolutionary ancestry

Phylogenic tree: "evolutionary tree" showing the relationships between organisms and their common ancestors

Homologous structure: a similar characteristic of organisms that comes from a common ancestor (results of a divergent evolution)

Vestigial structure: a homologous structure that has lost its functionality

Analogous structure: characteristics that serve a similar function but evolved separately

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