Biology Terms and Concepts

convergence: convergence pertains to an evolutionary process wherein organisms evolve structures that have similar (analogous) structures or functions in spite of their evolutionary ancestors being very dissimilar or unrelated. It is also called convergent evolution. biology online

genotype: the hereditary disposition or genetic constitution of an organism. wiki

homology: the existence of shared ancestry between a pair of structures, or genes, in different taxa. For example, the shared characters of organs across the animal kingdoms.wiki

phenotype: the bodily manifestation of an organism. The composite of an organism's observable characteristics or traits. wiki

taxon:(plural taxa; back-formation from taxonomy) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit.wiki