Understanding Evolution

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Found 16 resources for:
classification

A name by any other tree

Grade Level(s):

  • 6-8
  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • Evolution: Education and Outreach

Resource type:

  • Article

Time: 35 minutes

Overview

Phylogenetics has affected almost every area of biology - even the most basic one: how we classify organisms. Find out how phylogenetic classification works and what its advantages are.

This article appears at SpringerLink.

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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.

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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.

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Chimpanzee Droppings Lead Scientists to Evolutionary Discovery

Grade Level(s):

  • 13-16

Source:

  • Kosal, Erica F.

Resource type:

  • Classroom activity

Time: 1.5 to 2 hours

Overview

Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) is thought to be a precursor to HIV. This multi-part case study explores changes in SIV in different chimpanzee populations and how researchers use this information to test hypotheses about the origins of HIV.

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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.

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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...

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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: 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.

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Evolución 101

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Article

Overview

¿Qué es la evolución y cómo funciona? Introducción a la evolución ofrece información detallada y práctica sobre los patrones y los mecanismos de la evolución.

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A three "step" illustration. The first "step" (left) shows a population of three green and three brown beetles. The second "step" (middle) shows a bird eating one of the green beetles in the population. The third "step" (right) shows a population of one green and five brown beetles.

Island biogeography and evolution: Solving a phylogenetic puzzle using molecular genetics

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16

Source:

  • Filson, R.P.

Resource type:

  • Lab activity

Time: Two full class periods

Overview

Students focus on the evolution of three species of lizards using real data sets — geographical and geological data, then morphology, and finally molecular data — to determine possible phylogenetic explanations.

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Monkey opsins

Grade Level(s):

  • 13-16

Source:

  • Evo-Ed

Resource type:

  • Case study

Time: Two class periods

Overview

This case study in the form of a set of PowerPoint slides examines the evolution of trichromatic vision in old world monkeys.

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Names, they are a-changing

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16

Source:

  • Evolution: Education and Outreach

Resource type:

  • Article

Time: 30 minutes

Overview

The popular press often describes scientific controversies regarding which species ancient hominin fossils represent and how they are related to one another. How should students interpret the frequent name changes experienced by our extinct relatives? What should they make of headlines that trumpet major revisions of the branching patterns on our limb of the tree of life? This article will help teachers develop instruction surrounding these issues, discourage misconceptions, and help students interpret media coverage in light of the process of science.
This article appears at SpringerLink.

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Phylogenetic systematics, a.k.a. evolutionary trees

Grade Level(s):

  • 13-16
  • Advanced
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Tutorial

Time: 20 minutes

Overview

Learn about phylogenetic systematics, the study of the evolutionary relationships among organisms, and how the field is shaping biological research today.

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Teaching the Process of Molecular Phylogeny and Systematics: A Multi-Part Inquiry-Based Exercise

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16

Source:

  • Lents, Nathan, et al

Resource type:

  • Lab activity

Time: 1 to 4 periods

Overview

Students explore molecular data from Homo sapiens and four related primates and develop hypotheses regarding the ancestry of these five species by analyzing DNA sequences, protein sequences, and chromosomal maps.

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cladogram of primates

Tree of Life

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12
  • 13-16

Source:

  • Tree of Life

Resource type:

  • Interactive

Time: 1 class period

Overview

This interactive web resource allows you to follow any branch on the tree of life to find out how scientists hypothesize all the species on Earth (plus some extinct lineages) are related to one another.

This resource appears at the Tree of Life website.

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Tree of Life

Using trees to understand plants: The work of Chelsea Specht

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 scientist Chelsea Specht as she pieces together the evolutionary history of tropical plants and their pollinators--and in the process, tries to figure out how to conserve endangered species.

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Dr. Chelsea Specht