Found 42 resources for the concept:
An organism's features reflect its evolutionary history.
A Strange Fish Indeed: The “Discovery” of a Living Fossil
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
Source:
- Grant, Robert
Resource type:
- Classroom activity
Time: 50-90 min.
Overview
Through a series of fictionalized diary entries, this case recounts the 1939 discovery by Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer (and identification by J.L.B. Smith) of a living coelacanth, a fish believed to have been extinct for 70 million years.
An Antipodal Mystery
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
Source:
- Herreid, Clyde Freeman
Resource type:
- Classroom activity
Time: 1 to 2 hours, ideally split over multiple class periods
Overview
The discovery of the platypus had the scientific world in an uproar with its mammal-like and bird-like features. How was one to classify the platypus? This case study uses this issue to model the scientific process, with scientists arguing, debating, collecting more evidence, and revising their opinions as new data become available.
Artificially Selecting Dogs
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- 13-16
Source:
- Collins, Jennifer
Resource type:
- Classroom activity
Time: 90 minutes
Overview
Students learn how artificial selection can be used to develop new dog breeds with characteristics that make the dogs capable of performing a desirable task.
Classification and Evolution
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
Source:
- Gendron, Robert
Resource type:
- Lab activity
Time: Two class periods.
Overview
Students construct an evolutionary tree of imaginary animals (Caminalcules) to illustrate how modern classification schemes attempt to reflect evolutionary history.
Evo in the news: A fish of a different color
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 15 minutes
Overview
This news brief, from February 2006, describes how a mutated zebrafish gene may help us understand human evolution and the genes underlying human skin color. Humans and zebrafish both inherited the same pigmentation gene from their common ancestor.
Evo in the News: A new look at dinosaur fossils pushes back the evolution of feathered wings
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
This news brief, from November 2012, describes what a new dinosaur fossil from North America has to tell us about the evolution of feathers.
Evo in the news: Evolution in the fast lane?
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
Have humans, with all of our technological advances, exempted ourselves from further evolution? Perhaps not. This news brief, from February 2008, examines genetic research which suggests that human evolution may haved actually accelerated in our recent history.
Evo in the news: Evolutionary evidence takes the stand
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
This news brief, from January of 2007, describes the role of phylogenetic evidence in a Libyan court case. Six medical workers have been convicted of injecting children with HIV-tainted blood - but the evolutionary history of the virus paints a different picture.
Evo in the news: Genealogy enthusiasts mine DNA for clues to evolutionary history
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 15 minutes
Overview
This news brief, from November 2007, turns an evolutionary lens on businesses that use DNA for genealogy research and, in the process, illuminates what their genetic tests really track.
Evo in the news: Got lactase?
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
The ability to digest milk is a recent evolutionary innovation that has spread through some human populations. This news brief from April 2007 describes how evolution has allowed different human populations to take advantage of the nutritional possibilities of dairying and links evolution with the prevalence of lactose tolerance among people of different ethnicities.
Evo in the news: HIV’s not-so-ancient history
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
First described in 1981, HIV is a distinctly modern disease. But for how long before its discovery did HIV lurk unnoticed in human populations? This news brief from November 2008 describes new research offering insight into when (and how) HIV got its start.
Evo in the news: No more mystery meat
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
This news brief from April 2013 describes new research on the origin of American cattle breeds. The story told by the cows' genes crisscrosses the trajectory of human evolutionary history from wild aurochs that lived alongside Neanderthals, to Christopher Columbus and, ultimately, the American West.
Evo in the news: One small fossil, one giant step for polar bear evolution
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
This news brief from April 2010 describes what scientists have learned by extracting DNA from a polar bear fossil more than 100,000 years old. Though the fossil itself was just a fragment of the skeleton -the lower left portion of the jaw, still containing a tooth- the DNA had a lot to say about polar bear evolution.
Evo in the news: Seeing the tree for the twigs
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 15 minutes
Overview
Recent research has revealed that, in at least some ways, chimpanzees have evolved more than humans have. This news brief from May 2007 delves into this finding further and, in the process, debunks common misperceptions of human evolution.
Evo in the news: The evolutionary history of jogging
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
This news brief from March 2010 describes a new fitness trend: barefoot running. Though it might sound like just another fitness fad, soon to go the way of hula-hoops or jazzercise, this trend has a surprising connection to evolution.
Evo in the news: The legless lizards of LAX
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
This news brief from October 2013 describes the discovery of four new species of legless lizard. Why don't we just call these animals snakes? Because of their evolutionary history...
Evo in the news: The new shrew that’s not
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
This news brief from March of 2008 describes scientists' discovery of a new mammal species, a giant elephant shrew. Though elephant shrews resemble regular shrews, recent genetic evidence suggests that elephant shrews actually sprang from a much older (and perhaps more charismatic) branch of the tree of life - the one belonging to elephants and their relatives.
Evo in the news: Tracking SARS back to its source
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 15 minutes
Overview
This news brief, from January of 2006, traces the source of the SARS virus. Using phylogenetics, biologists have come up with a plausible path of transmission which may help us prevent future outbreaks of diseases such as HIV, SARS, and West Nile virus.
Evolution connection: Mitochondria and plastids
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
Time: 5 minutes
Overview
This short slide set describes how many characteristics of mitochondria and plastids are explained by their endosymbiotic origins. Save the slide set to your computer to view the explanation and notes that go along with each slide.
Evolution connection: Photosynthesis 1
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
Time: 5 minutes
Overview
This short slide set explains the existence of photorespiration using evolutionary history. Save the slide set to your computer to view the explanation and notes that go along with each slide.
Evolution connection: Photosynthesis 2
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
Time: 5 minutes
Overview
This short slide set explains uniformity and variation in the process of photosynthesis across all life using evolutionary history. Save the slide set to your computer to view the explanation and notes that go along with each slide.
Evolution connection: Proteins, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
Time: 5 minutes
Overview
This short slide set weaves basic information about carbohydrates, proteins, and nucleic acids into one evolutionary story regarding the evolution of lactose tolerance, which relates to students' everyday lives. Save the slide set to your computer to view the explanation and notes that go along with each slide.
Evolution connection: Ribosomes
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
Time: 5 minutes
Overview
This short slide set explains how some antibiotics target the bacterial ribosome and don't attack the ribosomes in our own cells through a quirk of evolutionary history. Save the slide set to your computer to view the explanation and notes that go along with each slide.
Evolution connection: The Krebs Cycle
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
Time: 5 minutes
Overview
This short slide set explains the uniformity of the Krebs cycle across all life using evolutionary theory. Save the slide set to your computer to view the explanation and notes that go along with each slide.
Evolution connection: Transcription and translation
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
Time: 5 minutes
Overview
This short slide set relates the role of RNA in the processes of transcription and translation to RNA's evolutionary history and the remnants of the RNA world. Save the slide set to your computer to view the explanation and notes that go along with each slide.
Evolution of human skin color
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
Source:
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Resource type:
- Classroom activity
Time: Seven to ten 50 minute class periods
Overview
Students examine evidence for the relationship between UV and melanin in other animals; investigate the genetic basis for constitutive skin color humans; learn to test for natural selection in mouse fur color; investigate how interactions between UV and skin color in humans can affect fitness; and explore data on migrations and gene frequency to show convergent evolution of skin color.
Eye Evolution
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Online activity or lab
Time: 45-60 minutes
Overview
This worksheet guides students through an interactive online module entitled Why the Eye? on the Understanding Evolution website. Students gain a better understanding of the different types of animal eyes and how natural selection can account for the evolution of a complex organ.
High altitude adaptations: The work of Emilia Huerta-Sánchez
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
- Advanced
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Research profile
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
This research profile follows statistician and population geneticist Emilia Huerta-Sánchez as she studies the adaptations that allow Tibetan highlanders to live 13,000 feet above sea level without developing altitude sickness.
Hominid Cranium Comparison (The “Skulls” Lab)
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
Source:
- ENSI
Resource type:
- Classroom activity
Time: One to two class periods
Overview
Students describe, measure and compare cranial casts from contemporary apes, modern humans, and fossil hominids to discover some of the similarities and differences between these forms and to see the pattern leading to modern humans.
How boogieing birds evolved: The work of Kim Bostwick
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Research profile
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
This research profile follows ornithologist Kim Bostwick through the jungles of Ecuador and the halls of museums as she investigates the evolution of an exotic bird's complex mating dance.
Investigating Natural Selection
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
Source:
- National Academy of Sciences
Resource type:
- Classroom activity
Time: Three class periods
Overview
Students experience one mechanism for evolution through a simulation that models the principles of natural selection and helps answer the question: How might biological change have occurred and been reinforced over time?
Mantis shrimp shoulder their evolutionary baggage and bluff
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- 13-16
- General
- Student
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Like all organisms, mantis shrimp carry baggage from their evolutionary history. Find out how this baggage has coaxed them into a deadly bluffing game.
Molecular genetics of color mutations in rock pocket mice
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Resource type:
- Classroom activity
Time: 50 minutes
Overview
This lesson requires students to transcribe and translate portions of the wild-type and mutant rock pocket mouse Mc1r genes and compare sequences to identify the locations and types of mutations responsible for the coat color variation described in a short film.
Natural selection and evolution of rock pocket mouse populations
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Resource type:
- Classroom activity
Time: 50 minutes
Overview
This lesson serves as an extension to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute short film The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation. It provides an opportunity for students to analyze amino acid data and draw conclusions about the evolution of coat-color phenotypes in the rock pocket mouse.
Phylogenetics laboratory: Reconstructing evolutionary history
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- Kefyn Catley and Laura Novick
Resource type:
- Lab activity
Time: 3 hours
Overview
By examining specimens, students fill in a data matrix of animal taxa and complete exercises to learn about synapomorphies, mapping characters on a phylogeny, and assessing parsimony.
Stickleback Evolution Virtual Lab
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
Source:
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Resource type:
- Online activity or lab
Time: 3 hours
Overview
This virtual lab teaches skills of data collection and analysis to study evolutionary processes using stickleback fish and fossil specimens.
The great clade race: Zombie Edition
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
Source:
- Martindale, Rowan and Goldsmith, David
Resource type:
- Classroom activity
Time: 30-50 minutes
Overview
This activity uses a simple puzzle to get students to use cladistic thinking without bogging them down with terminology.
The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection in Humans
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
- Student
Source:
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Resource type:
- Video
Time: 15-30 minutes
Overview
This 14-minute film describes the connection between the infectious parasitic disease malaria and the genetic disease sickle cell anemia - one of the best-understood examples of natural selection in humans.
The Missing Link
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- Strasser, M. Elizabeth
Resource type:
- Classroom activity
Time: 45 minutes
Overview
The setting for this case study is a paleontological dig in East Africa, where an undergraduate student has unearthed part of what appears to be an ancestral human skull. Students read the story and then examine a number of primate skulls. They are asked to build a phylogeny based on their observations.
Toxin resistance in clams
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
Source:
- Evo-Ed
Resource type:
- Case study
Time: 1 to 2 class periods
Overview
This case study in the form of a set of PowerPoint slides examines the evolution of toxin resistance in clams.
Variability and Selection in Natural Populations of Wood Lice
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- 13-16
Source:
- Berkelhamer, Rudi
Resource type:
- Lab activity
Time: 3-hour lab
Overview
In this lab, students measure the amount of variation in a natural population of terrestrial wood lice and then determine which traits are subject to selection by predators by performing a simulated predation experiment.
Why the eye?
Grade Level(s):
- 13-16
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Article
Time: 30-45 min
Overview
Eyes are something of an icon of evolution. How did such an integrated, multi-part adaptation evolve? While many different animals have complex eyes, untangling their evolutionary history reveals both remarkable diversity and surprising similarity.