An powerful explosion which was supposed to have created organisms on the Earth starting the evolutionary cycle during the Cambrian Period.
Period of time lasting from 545 million years
to 505 million years ago in the earth's history. It is marked by
the emergence of hard-bodied organisms in the fossil record.
Period of time lasting from 360 million years
ago to 286 million years ago in the earth's history. Also known as
the Mississipian Period or
Pennsylvanian Period.
The smallest structural unit of an organism
that is capable of independent functioning.
A period of time that started 65 million
years ago and continues to the present. It is divided into the
Tertiary Period and the Quarternary Period.
Similar to chemosynthesis.
The scientific study of substances.
The green matter found in cells of higher
plants and contained in round, flattened bodies called
chloroplasts. By means of chlorophyll, living plant cells can
change light energy into chemical energy.
A small body that occurs within the cells of green plants
containing chlorophyll.
A threadlike structure found in the nucleus of each plant and
animal cell. They are made up largely of DNA and consist of many
DNA units called genes.
Mutation which changes the number of
chromosomes or changes the number or arrangement of genes on a
chromosome. Similar to Chromosomal Aberration or Chromosomal
Abnormality.
A unit of scientific classification that
comes after phylum but before order in terms of biological
relationships.
A series of related populations that live
close to one another but generally do not co-mingle.
A group of organisms that are genetically
identical.
Evolutionary pattern that describes the evolution of one species
in response to new adaptations that appear in other species, such
as between a predator and its prey.
Evolutionary pattern that describes two completely unrelated
species that share similar traits that arise because each species
has independently adapted to similar ecological and environmental
conditions.
The theory that God supposedly created Adam and Eve to start life on the Earth.
A period of time lasting from 145 million to 65 million years
ago in the earth's history. It is marked by the extinction of the
dinosaurs near its end.
Fertilization of eggs with pollen from a
different plant.
The study of the internal structure and
organization of cells.
All the material inside the cell memberane
except the nucleus.