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Home → Teach Evolution → Lessons and Teaching Tools → Teaching Resources Database → The Evolution of Flight in Birds

The Evolution of Flight in Birds

Grade Level(s):

  • 9-12

Source:

  • UC Museum of Paleontology

Resource type:

  • Online activity or lab

Overview

This interactive module examines evidence from the fossil record, behavior, biomechanics and cladistic analysis to interpret the sequence of events that led to flight in the dinosaur lineage.

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Archaeopteryx_sketch
  • [History of life: Grades 9-12] Present-day species evolved from earlier species; the relatedness of organisms is the result of common ancestry. (LS4.A)
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 9-12] Features sometimes acquire new functions through natural selection
  • [Evidence of evolution: Grades 9-12] Similarities among existing organisms provide evidence for evolution. (LS4.A)
  • [Nature of science: Grades 9-12] Scientists can test ideas about events and processes long past, very distant, and not directly observable.
  • [Nature of science: Grades 9-12] Science is a human endeavor. (NOS7)
  • [Studying evolution: Grades 9-12] Our knowledge of the evolution of living things is always being refined as we gather more evidence.
  • [Studying evolution: Grades 9-12] Scientists use anatomical evidence to infer the relatedness of taxa. (LS4.A)
  • [Studying evolution: Grades 9-12] Classification is based on evolutionary relationships.
  • [Studying evolution: Grades 9-12] Evolutionary trees (e.g., phylogenies or cladograms) are built from multiple lines of evidence.
  • Disciplinary Core Idea LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity
  • NOS Matrix understanding category 7. Science is a human endeavor.
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