ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Glossary</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="Richard Fuerle" name=Author> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2668" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <CENTER><FONT size=+3>Glossary</FONT> <A HREF=#Foot1><SUP><B><U>1</SUP></B></U></A><A NAME=Back1></A></CENTER> <P ALIGN=justify> Adaptive  behavior or traits that increase fitness, the likelihood of passing on alleles.<BR> Adult  an individual who is (or was) capable of reproducing.<BR> Allele  a variety of a gene; the particular A-C-G-T sequence of a gene.<BR><A NAME="Alle"></A> Allen s Rule  mammals and birds from colder climates usually have shorter and bulkier limbs than the equivalent animals from warmer climates.<BR> Altruism  reducing individual fitness to increase inclusive fitness.<BR> Amino acid  an organic compound that has at least one amine group (-NH2) and at least one carboxylic acid group (-COOH). They are the monomers that link<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; together to form proteins.<BR> Artifact  something made or used by long deceased humans.<BR> Assortative mating  the tendency to mate non-randomly, typically with someone who is similar.<BR> Atavism  the expression of an allele that had been long ago turned off; a  throwback. <BR> Autosomes  chromosomes other than the X and Y chromosomes.<BR><A NAME=Bala></A> Balanced polymorphism  a situation where the optimal percentage of each of two or more alleles of a gene in a population is greater than 0 and less than 100.<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; (<I>Wikipedia</I>,  <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balancing_selection">Balancing Selection</A> ). See  environmental heterogeneity,  frequency-dependant selection, and  heterozygote advantage. <BR><A NAME="Berg"></A> Bergmann s Rule  within a species, the body mass increases with latitude and colder climate.<BR> Biogenetic Law   Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, i.e., the fetal stages of an organism reveal its evolution. Formulated by Ernst Haeckel, it is now believed to<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; be more accurately stated as  Ontogeny recapitulates the fetal stages of phylogeny. <BR> Bipedal  walking on two feet.<BR> BP  before present, taken as the year 1950.<BR> Bottleneck  a large reduction in population size, followed by a large increase in their numbers.<BR> Brachiator  an animal that moves through trees by swinging from its arms.<BR> Brow ridge  a bony ridge over the eyes that strengthens the skull and protects the eyes.<BR> Capoid  Bushmen and the remnants of the Hottentots, who presently reside near the Cape of Africa.<BR> Carrying capacity  the maximum biomass or number of individuals of a population that can survive in a territory.<BR> Chromosome  a strand of DNA entwined with a histone; it is passed on to the next generation during fertilization.<BR> Cline  a gradual change of the incidence of a trait between contiguous populations.<BR> Coalescence  a reduction of genetic variety as one moves back in time.<BR> Codon  three linked nucleotides that code for an amino acid.<BR> Congoid  Africans who reside around the Congo River and Niger basins.<BR> Copy number variant (CNV)  a difference in the number of copies of a string of DNA.<BR> Cross-over  in a pair of chromosomes, the transfer of chunks of DNA from one chromosome to the other during the preparation of an egg or sperm.<BR> Culture  behavior that is not inherited.<BR> DNA  deoxynucleic acid; a large polymer made by stringing together four nucleotides. It is a carrier of hereditary information.<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; Junk DNA  nuclear DNA that does not code for a gene.<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; Mitochondrial DNA  DNA that is inside a mitochondrion.<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; Nuclear DNA  DNA that is inside a nucleus.<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; Y Chromosomal DNA  nuclear DNA that is in the Y chromosome, which males have and females do not have.<BR> Drift  the tendency for a population that splits into two populations to become genetically different.<BR> Egalitarian  someone who believes that all people are essentially genetically the same and therefore genetically equal; a bioegalitarian.<BR> Environmental heterogeneity  a situation where the environment changes periodically and having a trait that is partially<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; advantageous in each environment is more advantageous than having a trait that is more advantageous in one environment and less advantageous in another,<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; i.e., where generalized is better than specialized.<BR> Epicanthic fold  a fatty fold of skin over the upper portion of the eyes.<BR> Epigenetics  the study of heritable changes in gene expression that are not due to changes in DNA.<BR> Equilibrium  the genome a population would have in a completely stable environment after an infinite amount of time.<BR> Erectine  having traits characteristic of <I>Homo erectus</I>.<BR> Ethny  a group whose solidarity is based on common descent; a group in between blood relatives and race.<BR> Exaptation  using a trait to do something other than what it evolved to do.<BR> Evolutionary psychology  the study of the selection of heritable behavior.<BR> Fitness, inclusive  the likelihood of increasing the number of copies of an individual s alleles in the next generation.<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; individual  the likelihood of increasing the number of copies of an individual s alleles in the next generation by an individual himself reproducing.<BR> Fixed  an allele is  fixed in a population if everyone has it.<BR> Frequency-dependant selection  a situation where having an allele is advantageous only if less than a certain percentage of people in the population have it, e.g.,<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; sociopathy.<BR> Founder effect  the lesser genetic diversity of a population that was founded by a sub-set of another population.<BR><A NAME="FST"></A> F<SUB>ST</SUB> - the numerical genetic distance or variaance between individuals or populations.<BR> Gause s Law of Competitive Exclusion  two subspecies of the same species do not for long occupy the same territory.<BR> Gene  a string of DNA that codes for one or more biologically useful molecules, usually polypeptides.<BR> Gene pool  a population s combined genetic heritage.<BR> Generalized  lacking traits for functioning better in particular environments.<BR> Genetic distance  a measurement of the extent that the genetic material of an individual or population differs from that of another individual or population.<BR> Genetic drift  random changes in the genome of an isolated population.<BR> Genetic similarity theory  the theory that people prefer mates, friends, etc. who are genetically similar to themselves.<BR> Genome  the full complement of heritable genetic information in an individual or a population.<BR> Genotype  heritable genetic information.<BR> Germline cell  an egg or sperm, or a cell that makes eggs or sperm.<BR> Gloger s rule  birds and mammals that live in a humid environment are more heavily pigmented.<BR> Gracile  having less bone and muscle; not robust.<BR> Gyrus  (pl, gyri) the raised portions of the cerebral cortex in between sulci.<BR> Haplogroup  a group of haplotypes.<BR> Haplotype  a collection of alleles in a region of a single strand of a chromosome that are inherited as a unit and are the same in most members of a population.<BR> Heterozygote  an individual who receives different alleles of a gene from his mother and father.<BR> Heterozygote advantage  a situation where having one copy of an allele is advantageous, but having two copies is not, e.g., sickle-cell anemia.<BR> Histones  proteins that entwine the DNA strands in chromosomes.<BR> Hitchhiking  an increase in the frequency on an allele because it is linked to an allele that is being positively selected.<BR> Holocene  the last 11,600 yrs.<BR> Hominid  a bipedal primate.<BR> Hominin  a member (living or extinct) of the genus Homo.<BR> Hominoid  resembling or related to man.<BR> Homo  the genus of man.<BR> Homozygote  an individual who receives the same allele of a gene from both his mother and his father.<BR> Human  a member of the genus Homo.<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; Archaic  a member of the species Homo sapiens who is not yet anatomically modern.<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; Early  a member of the genus Homo but not the species sapiens.<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; Modern  a member of the sub-species Homo sapiens sapiens.<BR> Hybrid  the offspring of two (genetically different) populations.<BR> Introgression  the movement of an allele from one population into another population by interbreeding.<BR> Inversion  a rearrangement of a chromosome where a segment is reversed end-to-end. An inversion occurs when a chromosome breaks and recombines in a<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; different arrangement.<BR><A NAME="Kins"></A> Kinship  kinship (f) is half the value of the coefficient of relatedness (r), f = r/2.<BR> Last Common Ancestor (LCA)  the LCA of two individuals (or two populations) is the most recent individual (or population) that includes an ancestor of both of<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; them, aka Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA).<BR> Lewontin s fallacy  the assumption that because individuals within a population differ in their alleles more than the average differences between races over all their<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; genes, the concept of  race is meaningless.<BR> Lineage sorting  the loss of an allele that occurs in a population when all the individuals who have that allele fail to have any progeny. The Y chromosomes of males<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; are lost when they have no sons and the mtDNA of females is lost when they have no daughters.<BR> Locus (pl, Loci)  a particular base pair (nucleotide) in an identifiable string of DNA.<BR> Macrohaplogroup  a group of haplogroups.<BR> Maladaptive  behavior that reduces fitness. Melanin  a pigment that colors skin, hair, and eyes, and protects against ultraviolet rays from the sun. There are two<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; primary pigments: Eumelanin  a dark brown or black pigment, and<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; Phenomelanin  a red-gold pigment.<BR> Meme  an idea that induces those who believe it to engage in behavior to induce others to believe it.<BR> Mirror Neurons  neurons in the brain that enable a person to understand what another person is feeling and empathize with him.<BR> Monomer  a compound that can react with itself or a different monomer to form a polymer.<BR> Mt. Toba  a volcano located in Indonesia that exploded 73,000 ya, darkening the atmosphere and killing large numbers of humans in Europe and Asia, as well as<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; other species.<BR> Multiculturalism  the doctrine that a desirable society consists of a mixture of many different (and often conflicting) cultures, each legally equal and equally worthy.<BR> Neoteny  the retention of childlike features (other than sexual features) into adulthood.<BR> Neutral  having no effect; an allele is neutral if it changes no traits.<BR> Nucleotide  a compound of phosphoric acid, a sugar (ribose for RNA and deoxyribose for DNA), and one of five bases (adenine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; for RNA and adenine, cytosine, thymine, and guanine for DNA).<BR> Occipital bun  a bulge at the back of the skull, principally in Neanderthals.<BR> Ontogeny  the developmental history of an organism from embryo to adult.<BR> Peptide  a short string of amino acids linked together.<BR> Phenotype  the traits expressed when genes are read.<BR> Phylogeny  the evolutionary history of an organism.<BR> Plasmid  circular DNA in mitochondria.<BR> Pleistocene  the period from about 1.8 mya to about 11,600 ya.<BR> Polymorphism  a gene having more than one allele.<BR> Polypeptide  a string of linked peptides.<BR> Population  a group of interbreeding individuals who have shared alleles that distinguish them from other groups; a politically correct term for race or ethny.<BR> Population genetics  the study of the distribution and frequency of alleles in different populations and how they have changed over time.<BR> Primate  a mammal that has five fingers, an opposable thumb, and fingernails.<BR> Promiscuous altruism  altruism that is not limited to those who are closely genetically related to the giver; sacrificing for others without regard to increasing one s<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; own fitness.<BR> Protein  a large polypeptide; a polymer formed from amino acids monomers.<BR> Pseudogene  a gene that has been turned off.<BR> Race  a group of individuals all expressing a set of independent genetically-controlled traits, where that set is not possessed by individuals in other groups of that<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; species; a partly inbred extended family; a breed.<BR> Race-denier  someone who denies the existence of biological human races.<BR> Race-realist  someone who believes that there are racial differences that are real and significant.<BR> Random  not predictable by any rule.<BR> Recombination  (1) the recombining of chromosomes from the egg and the sperm after fertilization, thereby restoring the chromosome number that was halved<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; during meiosis; (2) the  undoing of a mutation by one or more subsequent mutations that restores the original condition; (3) the process in which two<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; pairs of chromosome combine and exchange pieces to form hybrid chromo- somes during the formation of an egg or a sperm cell ( cross-over ).<BR><A NAME="Rela"></A> Relatedness  the coefficient of relatedness, r, is the portion of genes that two individuals receive from their LCA; generally, r = (½)<SUP>n</SUP>, where  n is the number of<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; generations between two related people.<BR> Reproductive success  placing one s alleles in the genome of the next generation.<BR> Retrovirus  an RNA virus that converts its RNA to DNA when it infects a cell.<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; Endogenous  a retrovirus whose DNA has become part of its host s germline.<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; RNA  ribonucleic acid, a large polymer identical to DNA, except that ribose replaces deoxyribose and uracil replaces guanine.<BR> Robust  having large bones and muscles; not gracile.<BR> Saggital keel (or crest)  a bony ridge extending along the center of the top of the skull from the forehead back for attaching chewing muscles and strengthening the<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; skull.<BR> Selection  increasing or decreasing the frequency of a trait in a population according to whether individuals who possess that trait have increased or decreased<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; reproductive success.<BR> Selection pressure  the additional reproductive success that could be achieved by increasing the frequency of an allele or combination of alleles in a population.<BR> Selective sweep  the replacement of a group of alleles in a population when an advantageous mutation occurs and the individual with that mutation is so<BR>&emsp;&emsp;&emsp; reproductively successful that not only does the new allele become common, but so do his other alleles, even though they are not more advantageous.<BR> Selector  any factor that increases or decreases an individual s reproductive success depending on whether or not he possesses a particular trait.<BR> Sexual dimorphism  the extent that males differ from females, other than in genital or reproductive traits.<BR> Simian shelf  a bony reinforcing ridge behind the lower incisors.<BR> SNP  single nucleotide polymorphism, a single base (A, C, G, or T) difference in a string of DNA.<BR> Sociobiology  the study of the biological basis for social behavior.<BR> Specialized  having traits for superior functioning in particular environments.<BR> Species  an interbreeding group of individuals who differ significantly from other interbreeding groups within the same genus.<BR> Sub-species  a race or a classification in between species and race.<BR> Sulcus  (pl, sulci) a groove in the cerebral cortex of the brain.<BR> Synonymous  having a different A-C-G-T sequence, but coding for the same amino acid.<BR> Tajima s D  a statistic used to infer whether positive selection of an allele has occurred. <BR> Trait  a heritable property of a living thing; a phenotype.<BR> <CENTER><P><A href="RecRead.html">Recommended Reading</A> <BR> <P><A HREF="index.html#Contents">Table of Contents</A> <P><P><B>FOOTNOTE</B></CENTER><BR> <P><A NAME=Foot1>1. </A> For a technical glossary see <A HREF="http://www.palaeos.com/Vertebrates/Lists/Glossary/Glossary.html">THIS</A> <A HREF=#Back1> Back</A> </BODY></HTML>