Understanding Evolution

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Understanding Evolution

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Found 5 resources for:
Animals

Evo in the news: A new old animal

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

A new species of velvet worm was recently discovered in Vietnam. This news brief from September 2013 describes the key position of velvet worms in evolutionary history and how they help us better understand the fossil record of the Cambrian period.

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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.

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Evo in the news: What has the head of a crocodile and the gills of a fish?

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 May 2006, reviews what is likely to be the most important fossil find of the year: Tiktaalik helps us understand how our own ancestors crawled out of the water and began to walk on dry land.

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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.

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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.

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