• [History of life: Grades 6-8] Biological evolution accounts for diversity over long periods of time.
• [History of life: Grades 6-8] Through billions of years of evolution, life forms have continued to diversify in a branching pattern, from single-celled ancestors to the diversity of life on Earth today.
• [Evidence of evolution: Grades 6-8] An organism's features reflect its evolutionary history.
• [Evidence of evolution: Grades 6-8] There is a fit between organisms and their environments, though not always a perfect fit. (LS4.C)
• [Evidence of evolution: Grades 6-8] Anatomical similarities of living things reflect common ancestry. (LS4.A)
• [Mechanisms of evolution: Grades 6-8] Traits that are advantageous often persist in a population. (LS4.B, LS4.C)
• [Studying evolution: Grades 6-8] Evolutionary relationships may be represented by branching trees (i.e. phylogenies or cladograms).

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

This tutorial provides many interactive features and does an excellent job of explaining homologies and analogies. You may want to have your class explore the resources Examples of Analogy and Examples of Homology available in the resource database at the main Understanding Evolution Website, evolution.berkeley.edu. There is also a version of this tutorial that is appropriate for grades 9-12.

• Adaptation
• Evidence for Evolution
• Natural Selection