Mission 1—TRAINING TREES.  Contains three sub-sections.

Red, Green, and Gecko: Make a phylogeny of the gecko, palm tree, and fungus.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
  2. Which organism is more closely related to the fungus?
  3. Plant
  4. Animal

 

 

Familiar Faces:  Make a phylogeny of the kingsnake, stick insect, goldfish, and dog.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
  2. What trait (from the tree) do all of these animals have in common?
  3. They’re all amniotes
  4. They all have backbones
  5. They all have bilateral symmetry

 

 

Tree of Life: Vegetarian Edition: Make a phylogeny of the banana, lemon, seaweed, radish, and onion.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
  2. Is the banana more closely related to a lemon or to an onion?
  3. Lemon
  4. Onion

Mission 2—Fossils Rocking the Earth.  Three sub-sections.

 

Eating Dinosaurs for Dinner

Make a phylogeny of the Archaeopteryx, Albertosaurus, ostrich, T. Rex, and chicken.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
  2. Do birds have anything in common with dinosaurs?
  3. Absolutely
  4. No way

 

  1. What trait do all five of these animals share?
  2. Shafted feathers
  3. Wishbone
  4. 2-fingered hand

 

 

One Small Step: Make a phylogeny of Acanthostega, Eusthenopteron, Tulerpeton, and Tiktaalik.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. According to the tree you just built, what is the first trait that helped aquatic species evolve into creatures that lived on land?
  2. Eyes located on top of the head
  3. Strong arm-like bones
  4. Webbed digits

 

 

Origin of Whales: Make a phylogeny of the hippo, killer whale, blue whale, Ambulocetus, Dorudon, and Pakicetus.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. Which of the following species does not have tail flukes?
  2. Blue whale
  3. Pakicetus
  4. Dorudon
  5. Killer whales

Mission 3—DNA Spells Evolution.  Three sub-sections.

 

Frog Legs and Fish Eggs: Make a phylogeny of the coelacanth, frog, and cichlid.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

The DNA sequence of the West Indian Ocean coelacanth is closest to which species?

  1. Western clawed frog
  2. Midas cichlid

 

 One fish, two fish, red fish, lungfish: Make a phylogeny of the lungfish, cichlid, coelacanth, great white shark, and frog.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. In 2013, scientists found that coelacanths are not the closest relatives of four-footed amphibians and other animals. Which species is?
  2. Midas cichlid
  3. South American lungfish
  4. Western clawed frog
  5. Great white shark

 

 

Where the tiny wild things are: Make a phylogeny of the six microbes.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. You build this tree using only DNA information. Why was examining DNA better than considering physical traits?
  2. Physical traits in single-celled organisms are hard to examine.
  3. Organisms that behave differently can be genetically similar.
  4. Certain traits evolve multiple times in multiple species, and DNA helps us track those changes.
  5. All of the above

 

 

MISSION 4—Biogeography: Where life lives.  Three sub-sections.

 

Saving Hawaiian Treasures: Make a phylogeny of the Hawaiian birds.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. Look at the way honeycreepers evolved. If a new species of honeycreeper were discovered, and it had a short, straight beak, which bird in this puzzle would likely be its closest living relative?
  2. Kaua’i ‘amakihi
  3. I’iwi
  4. ‘Akiapola’au
  5. Po’ouli

 

 

Cone Rangers: Make a phylogeny of the seven plant species.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. Thanks to DNA testing, scientists have discovered that a tree in South America is genetically similar to one in Australia. What is one possible evolutionary inference they could make from this discovery?
  2. It’s a coincidence
  3. Both species share an ancestor that lived when the world had supercontinents.
  4. The trees are adapted to seawater and floated between continents.
  5. No inferences can be made.

 

 

Kangaroos, gliders, and snakes, oh my!  Make a phylogeny of the seven animals.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. Despite living oceans apart, the North American kangaroo rat and the Australian hopping mouse look similar. Both are nocturnal and burrow underground.  What can you infer?
  2. Their similarity is a coincidence.
  3. They’re similar because they lived near each other on Pangea and separated when the continent split.
  4. They have similar traits because they both live in deserts where burrowing and nocturnal behavior are beneficial.

 

  1. Unrelated organisms that live far apart but evolve similar traits—what do we call this process?
  2. Natural selection
  3. Monophyly
  4. Convergent evolution
  5. Homology

 

 

 

 

Mission 5—TREE OF LIFE AND DEATH.  Three sub-sections.

 

 

Hosting Blood Flukes for Dinner: Make a phylogeny of the five blood flukes.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. If blood flukes were to exhibit strict cophyly over millions of years, you would predict that blood flukes would:
  2. Evolve in a way that’s completely different from their current host.
  3. Evolve in a manner that parallels the evolution of their host.
  4. Spread to a species that’s not closely related.

 

 

Fatal Fangs: Make a phylogeny of the six snakes.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. Which snake is most closely related to the unknown snake?
  2. Black whip snake
  3. Fierce snake
  4. King brown snake
  5. Tiger snake
  6. Taipan snake

 

  1. Which anti-venom will save Tyler?
  2. Antivenom A
  3. Antivenom B
  4. Antivenom C
  5. Antivenom D

 

 

Dawn of a Modern Pandemic: Make a phylogeny of the seven virus strains.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. Which ape virus is most closely related to the HIV virus that has killed about 39 million people due to AIDS?
  2. Chimp SIV-EK505
  3. Chimp SIV-MB897
  4. Chimp SIV-TAN1
  5. Gorilla SIV

 

Mission 6–YOU EVOLVED, TOO.  Three sub-sections.

 

Planet of the Apes: Make a phylogeny of the great apes.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. Based on this tree, who is your closest living relative?
  2. Chimpanzee
  3. Gorilla
  4. Orangutan

 

  1. Which great ape is most distantly related to humans?
  2. Chimpanzee
  3. Gorilla
  4. Orangutan

Back to skull: Make a phylogeny of the human ancestors.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. Which of the following can be inferred from the tree?
  2. The closest living relative of sapiens is H. erectus.
  3. erectus is more closely related to H. neanderthalensis than to H. sapiens.
  4. afarensis is more closely related to living chimps than to living humans.
  5. Larger brains are a trait that separate the genus Homo from their closest relatives.

 

Inside out of Africa: Use the fossil and DNA evidence to make a phylogeny of the archaic humans.

  1. Paste a screen shot of your tree here:

 

 

  1. With which archaic human species did some of the ancestors of modern Europeans interbreed during the past 100,000 years?
  2. Australopithecus afarensis
  3. Denisovan
  4. Homo erectus
  5. Neanderthal
  6. Homo habilis

 

 

 


    Make your order right away

    Confidentiality and privacy guaranteed

    satisfaction guaranteed