Chapter 7, Processes of Macroevolution: Mammalian/Primate Evolutionary History

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Chapter 7, Processes of Macroevolution
Mammalian/Primate Evolutionary History

• Key Terms

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• Classification In biology, the ordering of
  organisms into categories, such as orders,
  families, and genera, to show evolutionary
  relationships.
• Metazoa Multicellular animals a major division
  of the animal kingdom.

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• Chordata The phylum of the animal kingdom that
  includes vertebrates.
• Vertebrates Animals with bony backbones
  includes fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and
  mammals.

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• Homologies Similarities between organisms based
  on descent from a common ancestor.
• Analogies Similarities between organisms based
  strictly on common function,with no assumed
  common evolutionary descent.

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• Homoplasy The separate evolutionary development
  of similar characteristics in different groups of
  organisms.
• Evolutionary systematicsA traditional approach
  to classification (and evolutionary
  interpretation) in which presumed ancestors and
  descendants are traced in time by analysis of
  homologous characters.

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• Cladistics An approach to classification that
  seeks to make rigorous evolutionary
  interpretations based solely on analysis of
  certain types of homologous characters (those
  considered derived characters).
• Derived Referring to characters that are
  modified from the ancestral condition and thus
  are diagnostic of particular evolutionary
  lineages.

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• AncestralReferring to characters inherited by a
  group of organisms from a remote ancestor and
  thus not diagnostic of groups (lineages)
  branching subsequent to the time the character
  first appeared.
• Shared derived Relating to specific character
  states shared in common between two forms and
  considered the most useful for making
  evolutionary interpretations.

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• Phylogenetic tree A chart showing evolutionary
  relationships as determined by phylogenetic
  systematics. It contains a time component and
  implies ancestor-descendant relationships.
• Cladogram A chart showing evolutionary
  relationships as determined by cladistic
  analysis. It is based solely on interpretation of
  shared derived characters. No time component is
  indicated, and ancestor descendant relationships
  are not implied.

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• Biological species conceptA depiction of species
  as groups of individuals capable of fertile
  interbreeding but reproductively isolated from
  other such groups.
• Speciation The process where a new species
  evolves from a prior species. Speciation is the
  most basic process in macroevolution.

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• Intraspecific Within species refers to
  variation seen within the same species.
• InterspecificBetween species refers to
  variation beyond that seen within the same
  species to include additional aspects seen
  between two different species.

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• Paleospecies Species defined from fossil
  evidence, often covering a long time span.
• Genus A group of closely related species.

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• Geological time scaleThe organization of earth
  history into eras, periods, and epochs commonly
  used by geologists and paleoanthropologists.
• Continental drift The movement of continents on
  sliding plates of the earths surface. As a
  result, the positions of large landmasses have
  shifted dramatically during the earths history.

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• Ecological nichesThe positions of species within
  their physical and biological environments,
  together making up the ecosystem. A species
  ecological niche is defined by such components as
  diet, terrain, vegetation, type of predators,
  relationships with other species, and activity
  patterns, and each niche is unique to a given
  species.

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• Epochs Categories of the geological time scale
  subdivisions of periods. In the Cenozoic, epochs
  include the Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene,
  Miocene, and Pliocene (from the Tertiary) and the
  Pleistocene and Holocene (from the Quaternary).
• Adaptive radiationThe relatively rapid expansion
  and diversification of life forms into new
  ecological niches.

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• Heterodont Having different kinds of teeth
  characteristic of mammals, whose teeth consist of
  incisors, canines, premolars, and molars.
• EndothermicAble to maintain internal body
  temperature through the production of energy by
  means of metabolic processes within cells
  characteristic of mammals, birds, and perhaps
  some dinosaurs.

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• Large-bodied hominoids Those hominoids including
  the great apes (orangutans, chimpanzees,
  gorillas) and hominids, as well as all ancestral
  forms back to the time of divergence from
  small-bodied hominoids (i.e., the gibbon
  lineage).
• Hominids Colloquial term for members of the
  family Hominidae, which includes all bipedal
  hominoids back to the divergence from African
  great apes.

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• Punctuated equilibriumThe concept that
  evolutionary change proceeds through long periods
  of stasis punctuated by rapid periods of change.