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Home → Teach Evolution → Lessons and Teaching Tools → Teaching Resources Database → Evo in the news: Where did all of Madagascar’s species come from?

Evo in the news: Where did all of Madagascar’s species come from?

Grade Level(s):

  • 13-16
  • Advanced
  • General

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Evo in the News article

Time: 30 minutes

Overview

Recently, political unrest in Madagascar has threatened to set back the island's expanding conservation efforts, and criminals have taken advantage of the instability, looting protected forests for rare wood. This news story from October 2009 turns back the clock to consider the biogeographic processes that made Madagascar into a biodiversity hotspot in the first place.

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  • [History of life: Grades 13-16] Present-day species evolved from earlier species; the relatedness of organisms is the result of common ancestry.
  • [History of life: Grades 13-16] Geological change and biological evolution are linked.
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 13-16] The patterns of life's diversity through time provide evidence of evolution.
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 13-16] The fossil record provides evidence for evolution.
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 13-16] Similarities among existing organisms (including morphological, developmental, and molecular similarities) reflect common ancestry and provide evidence for evolution.
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 13-16] The geographic distribution of species often reflects how geologic change has influenced lineage splitting.
  • [Mechanisms of evolution: Grades 13-16] Speciation is the splitting of one ancestral lineage into two or more descendant lineages.
  • [Nature of science: Grades 13-16] Scientists may explore many different hypotheses to explain their observations.
  • [Studying evolution: Grades 13-16] Our understanding of life through time is based upon multiple lines of evidence.

There are no NGSS/DCI concepts currently linked to this resource.

This article includes a set of discussion and extension questions for use in class, as well as a video podcast. It also includes hints about related lessons that might be used in conjunction with this one. Get more tips for using Evo in the News articles in your classroom.