Glossary
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Glossary Terms for letter: F
fission track dating An absolute dating method based on the measurement of the number of tracks left by the decay of uranium-238.
fitness Average number of offspring produced by parents with a particular genotype compared to the number of offspring produced by parents with another genotype.
fluorine dating A relative (chemical) dating method that compares the accumulation of fluorine in animal and human bones from the same site.
Folsom Early Native American (immediately following Clovis) culture of North America; technology known for large, fluted, bifacial projectile points used as spear points for big game hunting.
foraminifera Marine protozoans that have variably shaped shells with small holes.
forensic anthropology The scientific examination of skeletons in hope of identifying the people whose bodies they came from.
fossil fuel Combustible material, such as oil, coal, or natural gas, composed of organisms' remains preserved in rocks.
fossils Physical remains of part or all of once-living organisms, mostly bones and teeth, that have become mineralized by the replacement of organic with inorganic materials.
founder effect The accumulation of random genetic changes in a small population that has become isolated from the parent population due to the genetic input of only a few colonizers.
frameshift mutation The change in a gene due to the insertion or deletion of one or more nitrogen bases, which causes the subsequent triplets to be rearranged and the codons to be read incorrectly during translation.
free-floating nucleotides Nucleotides (the basic building block of DNA and RNA) that are present in the nucleus and are used during DNA replication and mRNA synthesis.
functional adaptations Biological changes that occur during an individual's lifetime, increasing the individual's fitness in the given environment.
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