KICA Workbook: SBI 3U

KICAWorkbook:SBI3UStrandC:Evolution

By:KarinaChuah,ChristinaFurlano,RachelMorison,andJohnXu

To:DavidDanter

Biology5202

March5th2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section

Page*

UnitOverview 3UnitOutline 5KnowledgeLesson(Rachel) 10InquiryLesson(John) 13

• Procedure 17• Outcomes 18

CommunicationLesson(Christina) 20• Article 23• ArticleLayoutExample 31• Rubric 32

ApplicationLesson(Karina) 33• Activity 35• ScientificNotesRubric 39• DocumentationRubric 40

*note: page numbers correspond to those in the pdf file for easy browsing.

UNIT OVERVIEW UnitSummary:Evolutionisthebasisofbiologyandisthereforeacriticalelementofthecurriculum.Thisunitwillintroducestudentstoevolutionanditsprocessesandapplicationsoftheconcept.StudentswillexploretheideasofvariousscientistsrelativetochangeinspeciesandhowtheycontributedtoDarwin’stheoryofevolution.Astheunitprogresses,thestudentswillexploretheideasofselectionandadaptationindepth.OverallExpectations:

• C1.analysetheeconomicandenvironmentaladvantagesanddisadvantagesofanartificialselectiontechnology,andevaluatetheimpactofenvironmentalchangesonnaturalselectionandendangeredspecies

• C2.investigateevolutionaryprocesses,andanalysescientificevidencethatsupportsthetheoryofevolution;

• C3.demonstrateanunderstandingofthetheoryofevolution,theevidencethatsupportsit,andsomeofthemechanismsbywhichitoccurs.

SpecificExpectations:

• C1.RelatingSciencetoTechnology,Society,andtheEnvironmento C1.1analyse,onthebasisofresearch,theeconomicandenvironmental

advantagesanddisadvantagesofanartificialselectiontechnology(e.g.,livestockandhorticulturalbreeding)[IP,PR,AI,C]

o C1.2evaluatethepossibleimpactofanenvironmentalchangeonnaturalselectionandonthevulnerabilityofspecies(e.g.,adaptationtoenvironmentalchangescanaffectreproductivesuccessofanorganism)[AI,C]

• C2.DevelopingSkillsofInvestigationandCommunication

o C2.1useappropriateterminologyrelatedtoevolution,including,butnotlimitedto:extinction,naturalselection,phylogeny,speciation,niche,mutation,mimicry,adaptation,andsurvivalofthefittest[C]

o C2.2usearesearchprocesstoinvestigatesomeofthekeyfactorsthataffecttheevolutionaryprocess(e.g.,geneticmutations,selectivepressures,environmentalstresses)[IP,PR]

o C2.3analyse,onthebasisofresearch,andreportonthecontributionsofvariousscientiststomoderntheoriesofevolution(e.g.,CharlesLyell,ThomasMalthus,Jean‐BaptisteLamarck,CharlesDarwin,StephenJayGould,NilesEldredge)[IP,PR,AI,C]

o C2.4investigate,throughacasestudyorcomputersimulation,theprocessesofnaturalselectionandartificialselection(e.g.,selectivebreeding,antibioticresistanceinmicroorganisms),andanalysethedifferentmechanismsbywhichtheyoccur[PR,AI,C]

• C3.UnderstandingBasicConcepts

o C3.1explainthefundamentaltheoryofevolution,usingtheevolutionarymechanismofnaturalselectiontoillustratetheprocessofbiologicalchangeovertime

o C3.2explaintheprocessofadaptationofindividualorganismstotheirenvironment(e.g.,somedisease‐causingbacteriainabacterialpopulationcansurviveexposuretoantibioticsduetoslightgeneticvariationsfromtherestofthepopulation,whichallowssuccessfulsurvivingbacteriatopassonantibioticresistancetothenextgeneration)

o C3.3definetheconceptofspeciation,andexplaintheprocessbywhichnewspeciesareformed

o C3.4describesomeevolutionarymechanisms(e.g.,naturalselection,artificialselection,sexualselection,geneticvariation,geneticdrift,biotechnology),andexplainhowtheyaffecttheevolutionarydevelopmentandextinctionofvariousspecies(e.g.,Darwin’sfinches,giraffes,pandas)

Lesson LessonDescription OverallExpectationKICAFocus TypeofAssessment

1 IntroductiontoEvolution:Studentswillexplorethebiologicaldefinitionofevolution,withmisconceptionsdiscussed.

C3.demonstrateanunderstandingofthetheoryofevolution,theevidencethatsupportsit,andsomeofthemechanismsbywhichitoccurs

K Diagnostic:surveystudentspriorknowledgeofevolutionsothatmisconceptionscanbeaddressed.Formative:questioningandclassparticipationthroughoutperiod.

2 EvidenceforEvolutionaryTheories:Scientistsareinfluencedintheirthinkingbypeersinthescientificcommunityandpublicopinion.Eachgroupofstudentswillbeaskedtoresearchthelifeofoneoftheseindividualstodiscoverinfluencesontheindividual’sscientificthinkingandhowtheirtheoriesinfluencedevidenceforevolution.

C2.investigateevolutionaryprocesses,andanalysescientificevidencethatsupportsthetheoryofevolution

K,C Formative:summaryofresearchfindingsintheformofamindmap/conceptmapandpresentationoffindings(e.g.throughroleplay)totheclass.

3 HowWeKnowWhatWeKnow:Studentswillwalkthroughhowscientistshaveobtainedevidencethatsupportsthetheoryofevolutionincludingradiometricdating,geneanalysisandplatetectonics.

C3.demonstrateanunderstandingofthetheoryofevolution,theevidencethatsupportsit,andsomeofthemechanismsbywhichitoccurs

K Diagnosticquestioningatthestartofclass;formativeassessmentthroughaKWLchart.

4 EvolutionaryArm’sRace:StudentswillwatchPBS’sEvolutionaryArm’sRaceasahookintotheremainderoftheunit.

All(C1‐C3) K,C Summative:Studentswillwriteabriefreflectionoftheirthoughtsonthevideo.

5 EvidenceforEvolution:Studentswilllookatspecificevidenceforevolutionincludinghomologousfeatures,vestigialfeatures,andislandbiogeographyandcompleteanactivitywherethey

C2.investigateevolutionaryprocesses,andanalysescientificevidencethatsupportsthetheoryof

K,A Formativequestioningaswellasanexitcardtodeterminewhatprogressstudentshavemade.

lookatandmatchhomologousfeatures. evolution

6 Adaptation:Studentswilllearnhowtodistinguishbehavioural,structural,andphysiologicaladaptationswiththeuseofexamplesinclass.

C2.investigateevolutionaryprocesses,andanalysescientificevidencethatsupportsthetheoryofevolutionC3.demonstrateanunderstandingofthetheoryofevolution,theevidencethatsupportsit,andsomeofthemechanismsbywhichitoccurs.

K Formative:havestudentswrite“whatisanadaptation”onapieceofpaper,writeasentencerelatedtothequestionandpasspaperfromstudenttostudent,creatinga“responsechain”.Examineresponsechaintoassessstudents’comprehensionoftheday’slesson.

7 SelectivePressures:Studentswilllookatthetypesofselectivepressuresplacedonaspeciesandapplytheirunderstandingbycompletingabriefassignmentontheirchoiceofspeciesthatexhibitscertaincharacteristicsduetoacertaintypeofselection.

C2.investigateevolutionaryprocesses,andanalysescientificevidencethatsupportsthetheoryofevolution;

K,A,C Formativequestioningthroughoutlesson;summativeassignmentontheirchoiceofspecies.

8 NaturalSelection:Studentswillbegintolookattheprocessofnaturalselectionandthefactorsaffectingthefitnessofaspeciesthroughclassdiscussion,aswellasdefinekeytermsrelatedtonaturalselection.Therewillbea15minutequizatthestartofclass.


K,C Summativeassessmentintheformofashortquiztoassessstudentprogress;diagnosticandformativeassessmentintheformofclassroomdiscussion.

9a NaturalSelectionActivity:Studentswillcompleteanactivitysimulatingnaturalselectionofflightinbirdsusingmaterialssuchasstraws,paper,pipecleaners,feathersandpaperclips.

C2.investigateevolutionaryprocesses,andanalysescientificevidencethatsupportsthetheoryofevolution

I Formativequestioningthroughoutperiodbasedonadditionsandsubtractionseachgroupmakes.

9b ActivityContinued C2.investigateevolutionaryprocesses,

I Formativediscussionandquestioning

andanalysescientificevidencethatsupportsthetheoryofevolution

aboutconceptsaddressedbyactivity

10 Effectsofnaturalselection:Describehowdisruptive,stabilizing,anddirectionalnaturalselectionactonvariation.

C3.demonstrateanunderstandingofthetheoryofevolution,theevidencethatsupportsit,andsomeofthemechanismsbywhichitoccurs.

K,C Formative:Exitcard.Studentswillreflectonwhattheyhavelearnedabouttheeffectsofnaturalselection,whatdidtheyalreadyknowandwhatquestionstheystillhave.

11 Speciation,TheFormationofNewSpecies:Inthislessonstudentswilllearnaboutthedifferentmechanismsandmodesofspeciationandwillinvestigate,inpairshowseparatespeciesevolved.


K(andsome

C)

Formative:Studentknowledgewillbegaugedthroughthequick3minutepresentationsthattheygivetotheclass.

12 PatternsofEvolution:Studentswilllearnaboutconvergentanddivergentevolutionbylookingatanumberofexamplesandexploringhowevolutionoccurred.Forexample,studentsmaylookatspecificexampleofplacentalmammalsandAustralianmarsupials.


K,C Formative:Studentswillcommunicatewhattheylearnedinthelessonbyansweringquestionsinwrittenformat,explaininghowdifferentexamplesofconvergentanddivergentevolutionoccurred.

13 Tiktaalik:StudentswillinvestigatethediscoveryofTiktaalikroseaeandwhatithasmeantforthetheoryofevolution.


K,C Summativeassessment(article);formativequestioning,presentationoflearnedmaterialtotheclass.

14 AvoidingExtinctions:StudentswillcompletealessonandactivityonavoidingextinctionsandTheRedQueenTheory.Studentswilllearnaboutthe

C3.demonstrateanunderstandingofthetheoryofevolution,theevidencethatsupportsit,andsome

K Formative:Studentknowledgewillbetestedthroughquestioningduringdiscussions.

contentthroughsomenotesandexamplesaswellasahookonTheRedQueen(linktoliterature).Theywilltheningroupslookatscientificarticlesthatdiscussthismaterialtoengageinaprocessofimprovingscientificliteracy.Forexample,thearticle“TheRedQueenwasright:Lifemustcontinuallyevolvetoavoidextinction.”

ofthemechanismsbywhichitoccurs.

15 SexualDimorphism:Studentswilllearnaboutsexualdimorphisminavarietyofspeciesthroughvideosandbrieflecturingonboththepositiveandnegativeeffectsthishasontheirfitness;studentswillapplythisnewknowledgeonaworksheet.


K,I Formativequestioning;Summative‐studentswillhandinworksheetontheprocessofsexualdimorphism(duenextclass)

16 ArtificialSelection:Fieldtriptoalocalhorticulturalistoranimalbreederforademonstrationoftraitsselectedforinaplantoranimal,andtheselectivebreedingpracticesused.Studentswillindividuallyresearchtheeconomicand/orenvironmentaladvantagesanddisadvantagesofanartificialselectiontechnologythatisused.

C1.analyzetheeconomicandenvironmentaladvantagesanddisadvantagesofanartificialselectiontechnology,andevaluatetheimpactofenvironmentalchangesonnaturalselectionandendangeredspecies

K,A Formative:participationduringfieldtripCompletionofresearchreport

17 Casestudy:Studentswillapplyprinciplesofevolutionthattheyhavelearnedinclasstocreatetheirownstoryexplainingtheevolutionaryhistoryofananimaloftheirchoice

C1.analyzetheeconomicandenvironmentaladvantagesanddisadvantagesofanartificialselectiontechnology,andevaluatetheimpactofenvironmentalchangesonnaturalselectionandendangeredspeciesC2.investigateevolutionaryprocesses,andanalysescientific

A Summativeassignmentasaculminatingactivity.

evidencethatsupportsthetheoryofevolution

18 HumanEvolution:studentswilllookatthefactorsthathaveaffectedhumanevolutionthroughwatchingBBC’s“OutofAfrica”andansweringquestionsbasedonthevideo.


K,C,I Formativequestioning;studentswillwriteabriefreflectionbasedonwhattheylearnedinthevideotobehandedinthenextclassbasedonthefactorsthatcaneffecthumanevolution.Thereflectionwillalsoaddresswhetherwearestillevolvingsincewehaveintroducedmedicineandhelpfultechnologies.

19 UnitTestReview:Studentswillreviewtheknowledgegainedinthisunitthroughachainquestionactivitywherestudentsreceivecardsthathaveaquestionandananswertosomeoneelse’squestion,andwillpracticewithformertest/studyquestionsinclass.

All(C1‐C3) K,I,C,A Formative‐questionsareforreviewpurposesonly,sothestudentsknowhowmuchinformationtheyknow.

20 UnitTest All(C1‐C3) K,I,C,A Theunittestisasummativeassessment.

1

KICA Lesson Plan (Knowledge Focused)

Teacher: Rachel Morison (student number: 250465188) Date: 5th March 2014 Lesson Title:

Speciation: The Formation of New Species

Brief description of your lesson:

Students will learn about mechanisms and modes of speciation and then do research and short presentations on specific examples of speciation.

Grade: SB13U

Strand: C, Evolution Time Required: 75 minutes Fundamental Concepts: Systems and their Interactions Big Ideas: Evolution is the process of biological change over time based on the

relationships between species and their environments. Specific Expectations:

C3.3 define the concept of speciation, and explain the process by which new species are formed

Overall Expectation: C3. Demonstrate an understanding of the theory of evolution, the evidence that supports it, and some of the mechanisms by which it occurs.

KICA Focus: Knowledge (K) is the main focus of this lesson; however, the lesson also has some communication (C) aspects to it.

Lesson Plan Outline: Introduction to Speciation (Hook), 3 minutes: The Speciation Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDPsZPKSEFg Students will be introduced to today’s lesson by watching the above clip, which acts as a short introduction to speciation. After watching the clip the teacher should explain that the clip was a short introduction to the topic of the lesson before moving into the content. Species & The Mechanisms and Modes of Speciation (Lecture Notes), 20-25 minutes: The teacher should then provide students with notes on the topics listed below. These notes may be done in the form of a powerpoint but should be accompanied by frequent periods of questioning and answering Students should copy down notes as the teacher goes through the information. Topics include:

• What is a Species? o Definition for species o Examples of different species o Definition of speciation

• Reproductive Isolating Mechanisms:

2

o Definition of reproductive isolating mechanisms o Definition of prezygotic mechanism and postzygotic mechanism o Types of Prezygotic Mechanisms:

Ecological isolation Temporal isolation Behavioural isolation Mechanical isolation Genetic isolation

o Types of Postzygotic Mechanism: Zygotic mortality Hybrid inviability Hybrid infertility

• Modes of Speciation: o Allopatric speciation o Sympatric speciation

Similar Yet Different (Activity), 20-25 minutes: Next the teacher should have students work in pairs. Prior to this class the teacher should choose 10 different species (assuming you have a max of 20 students) and choose pairs by giving each student one species (hand out image of images of the species – there should be 10 species, 2 of each species). If there are more than 20 students in the class then more species will need to be printed. The species will correspond to the group’s topic of research but will also ensure that partners are randomly selected. The teacher should then have students do research on the topic that corresponds to their species. The list of potential topics is below (the teacher should have this list prepared prior to class) The pairs of students must research their topic using netbooks (or the computer lab) and answer the guiding questions that are provided. Students will be provided with handout stating the instructions and the questions that that they must answer when doing their research: The questions that need to be answered are as follows:

1. Which reproductive isolating mechanism occurred in your topic? Explain how it led to the evolution of two distinct species. In your answer make sure you:

a. State whether it is a prezygotic or postzygotic mechanism. b. Explain the function of the mechanism as it applies to your specific topic.

2. In your topic did allopatric speciation or sympatric speciation occur? Explain. 3. Add an interesting detail that you discovered about both or one of your species.

List of Research Topics:

1. Equus ferus caballus (Horse) and Equus africanus asinus (Donkey) 2. Cypripedium calceolus (Pink Lady Slipper orchid) and Trillium grandiflora (Trillium) 3. Phidippus audax (Daring Jumping Spider) and Phidippus regius (Regal Jumping Spider) 4. Marmota monax (Groundhog) and Marmota marmota (Marmot) 5. Selenicereus grandiflorus (Queen of the Night) and Hylocereus undatus 6. Panthera leo (Lion) and Panthera tigris (Tiger)

3

7. Thalassoma bifasciatum (Atlantic Blue Headed Wrasse) and Thalassoma lucasanum (Pacific Cortez Rainbow Wrasse)

8. Ovis aries (Ewe) and Capra aegagrus hircus (Domestic Goat) 9. Oncorhynchus mykiss (Trout) and Oncorhynchus nerka (Salmon) 10. Magicicada septendecim and Magicicada tredecim

What did you Learn? (Mini-Presentations), 20-25 minutes: After students finish researching their topic they will then give quick two minute presentations to their peers, explaining their findings. Students should quickly go through their answers to the guiding questions during their presentation. They will not need to have any extra materials for their presentation; however, they may present a large sheet describing their findings if they wish to do so. These presentations will conclude the lesson, leaving about five minutes at the end of the class for a short debrief. Equipment, Materials and Resources:

• Species cut-outs (for randomly selecting partners and receiving topic) • Netbooks or access to the computer lab • Powerpoint • Projector • Handout with instructions and guiding question • List of Research Topic Options • YouTube video (hook) & access to internet • Large Presentation Sheets (for any students that want them)

Assessment: Assessment for this lesson is formative. Students will not be marked on their research or presentations as they only have the class period to complete their research and present their findings. Rather the research and presentation are meant to help gauge student knowledge on the content of the lesson. Additionally, the research and mini-presentations should help students understand and remember the content of the lesson more accurately as they will need to fully think through the concepts to complete the lesson. Additionally, because this lesson is focuses on testing understanding of major concepts and enhancing student knowledge the main KICA focus of this lesson is K (knowledge).

UNIT:EvolutionSBI3U‐NaturalSelectionPaperBirdSimulation(PreparedbyJohnXu)

KICAfocus:Inquiry

Materials:• Paper• Straws• Paperclips• Tape• Pipecleaners• Measuringtape

• Scissors• Dice• Feathers• Markers• Rulers

Handouts/Transparencies:• Activityinstructions

Reserve(A/V,fieldtrips,etc.):• Projectorandaudio• Computer

HWK:• Thinkaboutoutcomesof

activity

Whatarestudentstolearn?• Howtheprocessofnaturalselectionalterstraitsofanorganismthroughgenerations• Theimportanceofenvironmentaleffectsfornaturalselection

OverallExpectation(s):C2.investigateevolutionaryprocesses,andanalysescientificevidencethatsupportsthetheoryofevolution;C3.demonstrateanunderstandingofthetheoryofevolution,theevidencethatsupportsit,andsomeofthemechanismsbywhichitoccurs.

SpecificExpectation(s):• C2.1useappropriateterminologyrelatedtoevolution,including,butnotlimitedto:

extinction,naturalselection,phylogeny,speciation,niche,mutation,mimicry,adaptation,andsurvivalofthefittest[C]

• C2.4investigate,throughacasestudyorcomputersimulation,theprocessesofnaturalselectionandartificialselection(e.g.,selectivebreeding,antibioticresistanceinmicroorganisms),andanalysethedifferentmechanismsbywhichtheyoccur[PR,AI,C]

• C3.2explaintheprocessofadaptationofindividualorganismstotheirenvironment• C3.4describesomeevolutionarymechanisms(e.g.,naturalselection,artificialselection,

sexualselection,geneticvariation,geneticdrift,biotechnology),andexplainhowtheyaffecttheevolutionarydevelopmentandextinctionofvariousspecies

Lesson:Day1Beforeclass:preparation

• Studentsaredividedintogroupsof3‐5dependingonclasssize.Smallergroupsareideal,astheyallowformorepotentialvariations.Studentsshouldreceiveatokenwiththeirgroupnumberandsitaccordinglyastheyentertheclassroom.

• Allmaterialsshouldbepreparedaheadoftimeandplacedintocontainers.Eachgroupwillfindacontainerattheirtableorworkstation.

• Oneormoreareasinthehallorthegymshouldbedesignatedastheflightlocation.Itshouldbeanopenareathatallowsunobstructedflightforthebirds.Thefloorshouldbemarkedwithtapetofacilitatetherecordingofflightdistances.

0‐10minutes:Hookandinstructions• Studentswillbeshownavideoofthe(fake)flyingpenguins

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dfWzp7rYR4),theintentionforwhichistoexercisestudent’scriticalthinkingaswellasarousingcuriosity.Thevideo,despitelookingveryrealistic,doesnotportrayreality.Itislikelythatstudentswilleventuallyencountermisinformationontheinternetregardingscientificclaims,anditisbeneficialtoengagetheirskepticismofinternet‐derivedinformationearlyon.Thepenguinsarealsoconnectedtothetaskbecausetheyareaspeciesofbirdthathasevolvedawayfromflight.

• Studentsshouldberemindedofsafetyregardinguseofsharpandhardobjectssuchasscissorsandrulers.

• Studentsshouldbetoldtothinkabouthowthisactivityrelatestoordemonstratesnaturalselection,whichtheyhavebeenintroducedtoinanearlierlesson

10‐65minutes:• Theteacherwillmodelthefirstpartoftheprocedurebybuildingoneancestralbird.

Studentswillfollowalongbymakingtheirownbirdsoutofthematerialsprovided.Thisfirstbirdwillbeidenticalforallgroups,andthespecificationsofthebirdwillbeprovidedonthehandout.

• Studentswillrolldicetodeterminemutationsforthenextgenerationofbirds.Eachbirdwillhave2differentvariationsfromtheancestralbird.Thevariationscorrespondtothoselistedontheinstructions,andacoinisflippedtodeterminewhetherornotthevariationisanincreaseoradecrease.Forexample,ifastudentrollsa6andheads,theoffspringwillhaveanincreasedwingspan.

o 2newbirdswillbecreatedeachgeneration.Afterthevariationsaredetermined,studentsshouldrecordthemonasheetofpaper.Importantfeaturesthatmustberecordedare:

Strawlength Numberofloops Lengthofeachloop Widthofeachloop Numberofattachmentstoheadandbody(includinghorizontalwings)

o Theteachermayalsomodelthisstepinordertodecreaseconfusionaboutinstructions.

o Studentsmayalsodecoratetheirbirdswhileaddingobjectstothem.• Afterthetwooffspringbirdsareconstructed,theyandtheparentbirdshouldbeflownin

theflightarea.Eachbirdwillbeflownthreetimes,andthelongestflyingbirdwillbecometheparentofthenextgeneration.

o Theprocedurewillthenberepeated,and2newbirdswillbecreatedwith

variationsonthesurvivingparentbirdfromthepreviousgeneration.Thiswillcontinueuntiltheteachercallsstop.Studentsmayrecyclethebodiesofpreviousbirdsthatdidnotsurvivetobuildnewerbirds.

o Thestudentsshouldrecordthelongestflightdistancesofeverybird.• Duringtheactivity,theteacherwillintroducerandomeventsthataffectthebirdsofthe

generationatthetimeoftheevent:o Effect1,after15minutes:Inthewinterof1993–1994,peopleintheWashington,

D.C.,areabeganseeingHouseFinchesattheirbirdfeederswithastrangenewdisease.Theareaaroundthefinches’eyeswasredandswollen,andinsomecasesthebirdshadbecomeblind.Thecauseofthediseasewasidentifiedasacommonbacterialpathogenofdomesticpoultry.ThebacteriahadunexpectedlymutatedandjumpedtoHouseFinches.Withinthreeyears,roughly60%ofHouseFinchesineasternNorthAmericaweredead.Thefrontloopofonebirdineachgroupwillnowberandomlyselected(throughacointoss)andcut½acentimeter.

o Effect2,after30minutes:Acidrainandmercurydepositionreducetheavailabilityofcalcium,whichisanimportantnutrientfornestingbirdsandtheireggs.Infact,woodthrushesarelesslikelytobreedatsitesheavilyimpactedbyacidrain,andtheabsenceofhigh‐calciumpreymaybethecause.Moreover,researchhasshownthatmercurycontaminationinbirdsisaconditionthatissurprisinglypervasiveinuplandhabitats.Forthisgenerationthebirdthatfliesthefarthestwillnotbreed,meaningitstraitswillnotbepassedontothenextgeneration.

• Theteachershouldcirculatetokeepstudentsontaskandtoanswerquestions65‐75minutes:Cleanup

• Studentswillplaceallmaterialsbackintothebox,andrecycleanywastepaperproducts.• Studentsshouldbeaskedtothinkaboutconceptsexploredinthisactivityathomein

preparationfordiscussionthenextclass.Day20‐30minutes:Continueactivity

• Studentswillcontinuetheactivityfromthepreviousclass30‐40minutes:Classcompetition

• Theteacherwillcallastoptoallactivities.Eachgroupwilltakethefarthestflyingbirdtheycurrentlyhaveandgatherintheflightarea.Thegroupswillcompetebyflyingtheirownbirds.

40‐75minutes:Discussionandcleanup• Afterthecompetition,theteachershouldleadadiscussionabouttheactivity.The

followingconceptsshouldbeaddressed:o Howdoesthisactivityrelatetoordemonstratenaturalselection?o Whatenvironmentalfactorswereatplayduringtheactivity?o Whatisfitnessandhowdidthebirdsbecome“fitter”?o Arethereothermeasuresoffitnessthatwerenotincludedintheactivity?o Werethereanytraitsthatdidnotaffectfitnessimmediately?o Issexualselectionfactoredintotheactivity?

o Hastherebeenanyconvergentordivergentevolution?o Howdoesrandomnessaffectnaturalselection?o Thebirdscanbecomparedtoeachothertoshowhownaturalselectioncan

createchangesoverafewgenerations.

Assessment:• Formative:

o Theteacherwillassessstudentsthroughouttheactivitybymonitoringprogressandaskingquestions.

o Duringthediscussion,studentsshouldbeassessedbasedonunderstandingofevolutionaryconcepts.Thiswillinformthefocusofthenextfewlessons.

TeacherNotes:• Studentsshouldhavebasicknowledgeofnaturalselection,asthatwasthetopicofthe

previousclass.• Potentialconceptsthatcanbeaddressedduringdiscussioninclude:

o Naturalselectiondoesnotproduceperfectanimals:selectionisbasedontheenvironmentatthetime;selectedvariationsare“goodenough”

o Naturalselectionisbasedonrandomvariations,butisalsonon‐randombecauseselectionisbasedonsurvivalandreproductiveabilities

o Thereasonthatstudentsarenottoldtocontrolvariousfactorsduringtheactivityisbecausethismodelsevolutioninnaturemoreclosely.Innature,therearemanyrandominfluencesthataffectwhattraitsareselected.

o Whatisfitisdeterminedbytheenvironment.Therefore,inadifferentenvironment,thedefinitionoffitnessmaybeentirelydifferent.Forexample,maybecircularflightwouldgiveanadvantage.

o Sometraitsmaybeselectedbasedonthepreferencesofmates.Thismaydecreasefitnessinfavourofvisualdistinctiveness.

o Someofthesimulatedrandomenvironmentaleffectsinclude: Handshakingaffectinghowthebirdsareflown Presenceofwindandothereffects Precisioninbirdconstruction

• Thisactivitymaybeconnectedtothegeneticsunit,asmanyconceptsarerelated.

Reflections

PROCEDURE

1. As a group, create one ancestral bird using our directions.

2. Roll the pink die and flip the coin. The

number you roll on the die corresponds to the adjustment you must make from your chart. The coin flip represents how you make the adjustment. Heads represents an increase/move forward/addition/lengthening and Tails represents a decrease/move backward/subtraction/narrowing. Record all the adjustments.

a. Things that are important to

record are: i. Straw length (cm) ii. Number of loops iii. Length of each loop (cm) iv. Width of each loop (cm) v. Number of attachments to

head, body (includes horizontal wings)

3. Repeat the above step with the blue

die and flip a coin. Record (specifically) all the adjustments and make your new bird – this is your offspring.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for your second

offspring.

5. Fly your birds! Repeat this step for a total of three times for each bird. Record the longest flight distance for each bird.

6. The bird that flew the farthest in your

group will serve as the parent of your next generation. Discard the birds that didn’ t fly as far.

7. IMPORTANT: before creating the

parent bird, roll the dice. All group members will roll both dice and make adjustments to their own version of the parent bird. This is your new offspring.

8. Repeat steps 2 to 7 until you are told to

stop.

9. Give your last standing bird a species name!

PROCEDURE

1. As a group, create one ancestral bird using our directions.

2. Roll the pink die and flip the coin. The

number you roll on the die corresponds to the adjustment you must make from your chart. The coin flip represents how you make the adjustment. Heads represents an increase/move forward/addition/lengthening and Tails represents a decrease/move backward/subtraction/narrowing. Record all the adjustments.

a. Things that are important to

record are: i. Straw length (cm) ii. Number of loops iii. Length of each loop (cm) iv. Width of each loop (cm) v. Number of attachments to

head, body (includes horizontal wings)

3. Repeat the above step with the blue

die and flip a coin. Record (specifically) all the adjustments and make your new bird – this is your offspring.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for your second

offspring.

5. Fly your birds! Repeat this step for a total of three times for each bird. Record the longest flight distance for each bird.

6. The bird that flew the farthest in your

group will serve as the parent of your next generation. Discard the birds that didn’ t fly as far.

7. IMPORTANT: before creating the

parent bird, roll the dice. All group members will roll both dice and make adjustments to their own version of the parent bird. This is your new offspring.

s 8. Repeat steps 2 to 7 until you are told to

stop.

9. Give your last standing bird a species name!

RESULT

1Move Front Loop 1

cm Forward/Backward

2Move Back Loop 1 cm Forward/Backward

3Shorten/Lengthen

Front Loop by 1 inch

4Shorten/Lengthen

Back Loop by 1 inch

5Add/Remove paper headpiece of your

design

6Add a heavy beak

(paper clip)

RESULT

1Move Front Loop 1

cm Forward/Backward


3Shorten/Lengthen


4Shorten/Lengthen

Back Loop by 1 inch


design

6Add a heavy beak

(paper clip)

RES

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1M

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2M

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UNIT: Evolution Christina Furlano

Current Lesson: Investigating Tiktaalik rosae

Materials: Mac VGA Adaptor Handouts/Transparencies: - Scientific American Article photocopies - Rubric photocopies

Reserve (A/V, field trips, etc.): Projector Homework: - Assignment (due lesson 18 or one week

after assigned)

What are students to learn? • Learn about a transition species from water to land and the effects its discovery has had on

the theory of evolution.

Enduring Understanding(s) (Big Ideas): • The theory of evolution is a scientific explanation based on a large accumulation of

evidence. • The supporting evidence for evolution is constantly being gathered to allow for new ways

of interpreting the history of life on Earth.

Overall Expectation(s): • C2. investigate evolutionary processes, and analyse scientific evidence that supports the

theory of evolution; • C3. demonstrate an understanding of the theory of evolution, the evidence that supports it,

and some of the mechanisms by which it occurs.

Specific Expectation(s): • C2.3 analyse, on the basis of research, and report on the contributions of various scientists

to modern theories of evolution (e.g., Charles Lyell, Thomas Malthus, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Charles Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould, Niles Eldredge) [IP,PR, AI, C]

• C3.3 define the concept of speciation, and explain the process by which new species are formed

Lesson: 0-4 minutes:

- Play http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9h1tR42QYA (Tiktaalik song) as students come in and while students get settled and as attendance is being taken

4-15 minutes:

- Discuss Tiktaalik rosae with the class while they take notes (see chalkboard notes section 1) and the video played at the beginning of class.

- Encourage student discussion and questioning.

15-25 minutes: - Hand out Scientific American Article to the class. - Discuss briefly the major parts of the article (introduction, body, conclusion, pictures) and

the information that each holds.

28-30 minutes: - Break up the class into groups of 4 students. Be sure to pair up struggling students with

those who have shown a thorough understanding of evolution so far in the unit to ensure group learning occurs.

30-50 minutes:

- Each group is assigned a topic about Tiktaalik to learn about. Depending on class size, options include:

o Could Tiktaalik Walk on Land? o How Was Tiktaalik Discovered? o How Did Tiktaalik Breathe? o What Did Tiktaalik Have in Common With Early Tetrapods? o What Did Tiktaalik Have in Common With Early Fish? o How Has the Discovery Helped Science?

- Each group is responsible for getting information from the article for their assigned topic. They are to focus on the section that deals with their topic. Groups who finish early can read the entire article.

50-65 minutes: - Each group will share their findings with the class in a short informal presentation format

(2-3 minutes) intended to imitate scientists discussing the discovery of new information and sharing it with their colleagues. Students can ask the presenting group questions.

65-75 minutes:

- Introduce the assignment: Students will read the Scientific American article on Tiktaalik and write their own one page magazine or newspaper article or poster presentation from any point of view and towards any audience (includes researchers, paleontologists, general public, students of a certain age group, etc.) as long as both are mentioned.

- Template of a sample article will be posted at the front of the class. - Hand out and briefly discuss rubric. This assignment will be due one week after it has been

assigned. Students do not need to use a computer if they do not have access to one. The textbook (Nelson Biology 11) has information on Tiktaalik, as does the library. Creativity is encouraged.

Assessment Description: - Formative assessment through questioning the entire lesson. - Peer-assessment through presentations; students question each other’s knowledge - Summative assessment for the assignment.

Chalkboard Notes and Talking Points: 1. Tiktaalik roseae:

a. Discovered on Ellesmere Island (Northern part of Nunavut), is a transitional species between fish and the first animals that walked on land - Tiktaalik possessed strengthened hind fins. They existed 375 million years ago.

b. Tiktaalik had gills, scales, fins – like fish, but also a mobile neck, a primitive form of lungs, as well as the most important parts for our evidence – shoulders and wrists allowing them to hold themselves up on solid surfaces.

c. Recently new fossils have been discovered containing the pelvis that was found to be similar to those of early four-legged creatures (terminology: tetrapod)

i. This include a ball and socket hip joint, evidence for muscle attachment that would allow for advanced fin function

d. This species was assumed to exist, but no evidence had been found confirming the hypothesis of a transition species.

Reflections (what worked):

Reflections (improvement/replacement):

Recent fossil discoveries cast light on the evolution of

four-limbed animals from fish

in the a lmost four billion years since life on earth oozed into existence, evolution has generated some marvelous metamorphoses. One of the most spectacular is surely that which produced terrestrial creatures bearing limbs, fi ngers and toes from water-bound fi sh with fi ns. Today this group, the tetrapods, encompasses everything from birds and their dinosaur ancestors to lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs and mammals, in-cluding us. Some of these animals have modifi ed or lost their limbs, but their common ancestor had them—two in front and two in back, where fi ns once fl icked instead.

The replacement of fi ns with limbs was a crucial step in this transfor-mation, but it was by no means the only one. As tetrapods ventured onto shore, they encountered challenges that no vertebrate had ever faced be-fore—it was not just a matter of developing legs and walking away. Land is a radically different medium from water, and to conquer it, tetrapods had to evolve novel ways to breathe, hear, and contend with gravity—the list goes on. Once this extreme makeover reached completion, however, the land was theirs to exploit.

Until about 15 years ago, paleontologists understood very little about the sequence of events that made up the transition from fi sh to tetrapod. We knew that tetrapods had evolved from fi sh with fl eshy fi ns akin to today’s lungfi sh and coelacanth, a relation fi rst proposed by American paleontologist Edward D. Cope in the late 19th century. But the details of this seminal shift remained hidden from view. Further-more, estimates of when this event transpired varied wildly, ranging from 400 million to 350 million years ago, during the Devonian period. The problem was that the pertinent fossil record was sparse, consisting of essentially a single fi sh of this type, Eusthenopteron, and a single Devonian tetrapod, Ichthyostega, which was too advanced to elucidate tetrapod roots.

With such scant clues to work from, scientists could only speculate about the nature of the transition. Perhaps the best known of the sce-narios produced by this guesswork was that championed by famed ver-tebrate paleontologist Alfred Sherwood Romer of Harvard University, who proposed in the 1950s that fi sh like Eusthenopteron, stranded under arid conditions, used their muscular appendages to drag themselves to a new body of water. Over time, so the idea went, those fi sh able to cover more ground—and thus reach ever more distant water sources—were selected for, eventually leading to the origin of true limbs. In other words, fi sh came out of the water before they evolved legs.

Since then, however, many more fossils documenting this transforma-tion have come to light. These discoveries have expanded almost expo-nentially our understanding of this critical chapter in the history of life on earth—and turned old notions about early tetrapod evolution, diver-sity, biogeography and paleoecology on their heads.

BY JENNIFER A. CLACK

GETTING A LEG UP

ON LAND

100 S C I E N T I F I C A M E R I C A N D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 5

UP FOR AIR: Acanthostega, an early tetrapod, surfaces in a swamp in what

is now eastern Greenland, some 360 million years ago. Although this animal

had four legs, they would not have been able to support its body on land. Thus,

rather than limbs evolving as an adaptation to life on land, it seems that

they may have initially functioned to help the animal lift its head out of

oxygen-poor water to breathe. Only later did they fi nd use ashore.

w w w. s c i a m . c o m S C I E N T I F I C A M E R I C A N 101

Finding a Footholdamong the first fossil fi nds to pave the way for our modern conception of tetrapod origins were those of a creature called Acanthostega, which lived about 360 million years ago in what is now east-ern Greenland. It was fi rst identifi ed in 1952 by Erik Jarvik of the Swedish Mu-seum of Natural History in Stockholm on the basis of two partial skull roofs. But not until 1987 did my colleagues and I finally find specimens revealing the postcranial skeleton of Acanthostega.

Although in many ways this animal proved to be exactly the kind of anatom-ical intermediary between fi sh and full-blown tetrapods that experts might have imagined, it told a different story from the one predicted. Here was a creature that had legs and feet but that was other-wise ill equipped for a terrestrial exis-tence. Acanthostega’s limbs lacked prop-er ankles to support the animal’s weight on land, looking more like paddles for swimming. And although it had lungs, its ribs were too short to prevent the col-lapse of the chest cavity once out of wa-ter. In fact, many of Acanthostega’s fea-tures were undeniably fi shlike. The bones of the forearm displayed proportions reminiscent of the pectoral fi n of Eusthe-nopteron. And the rear of the skeleton showed a deep, oar-shaped tail sporting long, bony rays that would have provided the scaffolding for a fi n. Moreover, the beast still had gills in addition to lungs.

The piscine resemblance suggested that the limbs of Acanthostega were not only adapted for use in water but that this was the ancestral tetrapod condi-

tion. In other words, this animal, though clearly a tetrapod, was primarily an aquatic creature whose immediate fore-runners were essentially fi sh that had never left the water. The discovery forced scholars to rethink the sequence in which key changes to the skeleton took place. Rather than portraying a creature like Eusthenopteron crawling onto land and then gaining legs and feet, as Romer pos-tulated, the new fossils indicated that tetrapods evolved these features while

they were still aquatic and only later co-opted them for walking. This, in turn, meant that researchers needed to recon-sider the ecological circumstances under which limbs developed, because Acan-thostega indicated that terrestrial de-mands may not have been the driving force in early tetrapod evolution.

Acanthostega took pride of place as the missing link between terrestrial ver-tebrates and their aquatic forebears. There was, however, one characteristic of Acanthostega that called to mind neither tetrapod nor fi sh. Each of its limbs termi-nated in a foot bearing eight well-formed digits, rather than the familiar fi ve. This was quite curious, because before this discovery anatomists believed that in the transition from fi sh to tetrapod, the fi ve-digit foot derived directly from the bones

constituting the fi n of Eusthenopteron or a similar creature. Ordinarily, scientists might have dismissed this as an aberrant specimen. But a mysterious partial skel-eton of Tulerpeton, a previously known early tetrapod from Russia, had a six-digit foot. And specimens of Ichthyo-stega also found on our expedition to eastern Greenland revealed that it, too, had a foot with more than fi ve digits.

Findings from developmental biology have helped unravel some of this mystery.

We now know that several genes, includ-ing the Hox series and Sonic Hedgehog, control elements of fi n and limb develop-ment. The same sets of these genes occur in both fi sh and tetrapods, but they do different jobs in each. Hoxd 11 and Hoxd 13, for instance, appear to play a more pronounced role in tetrapods, where their domains in the limb bud are enlarged and skewed relative to those in the fi sh fi n bud. It is in these regions that the digits form. How the fi ve-digit foot evolved from the eight-digit one of Acan-thostega remains to be determined, but we do have a plausible explanation for why the fi ve-digit foot became the de-fault tetrapod pattern: it may have helped make ankle joints that are both stable enough to bear weight and flexible enough to allow the walking gait that tet-rapods eventually invented.

Acanthostega also drew attention to a formerly underappreciated part of early tetrapod anatomy: the inside of the lower jaw. Fish generally have two rows of teeth along their lower jaw, with a large num-ber of small teeth on the outer row com-plementing a pair of large fangs and some small teeth on the inner row. Acantho-stega showed that early tetrapods pos-sessed a different dental plan: a small number of larger teeth on the outer row and a reduction in the size of the teeth populating the inner row—changes that probably accompanied a shift from feed-

■ The emergence of land-going vertebrates was a cornerstone event in the evolution of life on earth.

■ For decades, a paltry fossil record obfuscated efforts to trace the steps that eventually produced these terrestrial tetrapods from their fi sh ancestors.

■ Fossils recovered over the past 15 years have fi lled many of the gaps in the story and revolutionized what is known about tetrapod evolution, diversity, biogeography and paleoecology.

■ These recent fi nds indicate that tetrapods evolved many of their characteristic features while they were still aquatic. They also reveal that early members of the group were more specialized and more geographically and ecologically widespread than previously thought.

Overview/The Origin of TetrapodsR

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Many of the critical innovations arose while these beasts were still largely aquatic. And the first changes appear to have been related not to locomotion but to

an increased reliance on breathing air.



ing exclusively in the water to feeding on land or with the head above the water.

This insight enabled experts to recog-nize additional tetrapods among remains that had long sat unidentifi ed in museum drawers. One of the most spectacular of these fi nds was that of a Late Devonian genus from Latvia called Ventastega. In the 1990s, following the discovery of Acan thostega, researchers realized that a lower jaw collected in 1933 was that of a tetrapod. Further excavation at the original Ventastega site soon yielded more material of exceptional quality, in-cluding an almost complete skull.

Meanwhile a number of near-tetra-pod fi sh have also been unveiled, bridg-ing the morphological gap between Eus-thenopteron and Acanthostega. Two of

these genera paleontologists have known about for several decades but have only recently scrutinized: 380-million- to 375-million-year-old Panderichthys from Europe’s Baltic region, a large fi sh with a pointy snout and eyes that sat atop its head, and 375-million- to 370-mil-lion-year-old Elpistostege from Canada, which was very similar in size and shape to Panderichthys. Both are much closer to tetrapods than is Eusthenopteron. And just last year an expedition to Elles-mere Island in the Canadian Arctic led by paleontologist Neil Shubin of the Uni-versity of Chicago produced some out-standingly well preserved remains of a fi sh that is even more tetrapodlike than either Panderichthys or Elpistostege. Shubin and his team have yet to describe

and name this species formally, but it is shaping up to be a fascinating animal.

A Breath of Fresh Airt h a nks to t hese recent fi nds and analyses, we now have the remains of nine genera documenting around 20 mil-lion years of early tetrapod evolution and an even clearer idea of how the rest of the vertebrate body became adapted for life on land. One of the most interesting rev-elations to emerge from this work is that, as in the case of limb development, many of the critical innovations arose while these beasts were still largely aquatic. And the fi rst changes appear to have been related not to locomotion but to an in-creased reliance on breathing air.

Oddly enough, this ventilation shift AN

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The evolution of terrestrial tetrapods from aquatic lobe-fi nned fi sh involved a radical transformation of the skeleton. Among other changes, the pectoral and pelvic fi ns became limbs with feet and toes, the vertebrae became interlocking, and

the tail fi n disappeared, as did a series of bones that joined the head to the shoulder girdle (skeletons). Meanwhile the snout elongated and the bones that covered the gills and throat were lost (skulls).

TURNING TETRAPOD

E U S T H E N O P T E R O NA lobe-fi nned fi sh

A C A N T H O S T E G AAn early tetrapod

I G U A N I AA modern iguana

Separation of skull from shoulder

Weight-bearing front limb with fi ve-digit foot

Noninterlocking vertebrae

Interlocking vertebrae

Interlocking vertebrae

Small pelvis unattached to spine

Larger pelvis attached to spine

Hind limb with eight-digit foot

Threemidline fi ns

One midline fi n

No midline fi ns

Pectoral fi n with bony rays

Front limb with eight-digit foot

Short snout with many bones

Long snout withfew bones

Opercular bones covering gills

and throat

Absence of opercular bones

Absence of opercular bones

Longer snout withfewer bones

Skull joined to shoulder

Pelvic fi n with bony rays

Very short ribs

Longer ribs

Long curved

ribs

Skull decoupled from shoulder to form neck

Weight-bearing hind limb with fi ve-digit foot

Large pelvisattached to spine


may have kicked off the gradual morph-ing of the shoulder girdle and pectoral fi ns. Indeed, evolutionary biologists have struggled to explain what transitional forms like Acanthostega did with their proto-limbs, if not locomote. The hy-pothesis favored on current evidence is that as the backwardly directed fins gradually turned into sideways-facing limbs with large areas for muscle attach-ments, they gained in strength. And al-though it would be millions of years be-fore the forelimbs developed to the point of being able to support the body on land, they may well have functioned in the interim to allow the animal to raise its head out of the water to breathe. The toes could have facilitated this activity by helping to spread the load on the limbs.

Last year Shubin’s team announced the discovery of a 365-million-year-old tetrapod upper arm bone, or humerus, that has bolstered this idea. The bone, dug from a fossil-rich site in north central Pennsylvania known as Red Hill, ap-pears to have joined the rest of the body via a hingelike joint, as opposed to the ball-and-socket variety that we and oth-er terrestrial vertebrates have. This ar-rangement would not have permitted a walking gait, but it would have enabled just the kind of push-up that a tetrapod needing a gulp of air might employ. It also might have helped the animal hold its position in the water while waiting to ambush prey.

Breathing above water also required a number of changes to the skull and jaw. In the skull, the snout elongated and the bones that form it grew fewer in number and more intimately sutured together, strengthening the snout in a way that en-abled the animal to lift it clear of water and into an unsupportive medium. The bones at the back of the head, for their part, became the most fi rmly integrated of any in the skull, providing sturdy an-chors for muscles from the vertebral col-umn that raise the head relative to the body. And the fusing of bones making up the lower jaw fortifi ed this region, facili-tating the presumed “buccal pump” mode of tetrapod ventilation. In this type of breathing, employed by modern am-phibians and air-breathing fish, the mouth cavity expands and contracts like bellows to gulp air and force it into the lungs. Buccal pumping may have de-manded more jaw power under the infl u-ence of gravity than in the water, where organisms are more or less weightless.

Might the strengthening of the jaws have instead come about as an adapta-tion for feeding on land? Possibly. The earliest tetrapods were all carnivorous, so it is unlikely that, as adults, they fed much on land during the fi rst phases of their evolution, because the only prey they would have found there were in-sects and other small arthropods. The babies, on the other hand, needed just this type of prey, and they may have been

the ones that initially ventured farthest out of the water to get them.

Meanwhile, farther back in the skel-eton, a series of bones that joins the head to the shoulder girdle in fi sh disappeared. As a result, tetrapods, unlike fi sh, have a muscular neck that links the head to the rest of the skeleton and allows for move-ment of the head separate from the body. The gill system also underwent substan-tial renovation, losing some bones but increasing the size of the spiracle—an opening on the top of the head that led to an air-fi lled sac in the throat region, making the entire respiratory apparatus better suited to breathing air.

But why, after millions of years of successfully breathing underwater, did some fi sh begin turning to the air for their oxygen? Clues have come from the overall shape of the skull, which in all early tetrapods and near-tetrapods dis-covered so far is quite fl at when viewed head-on. This observation, combined with paleoenvironmental data gleaned from the deposits in which the fossils have been found, suggests that these creatures were shallow-water specialists, going to low-water places to hunt for smaller fi sh and possibly to mate and lay their eggs. Perhaps not coincidentally, vascular plants were fl ourishing during the Devonian, transforming both the ter-restrial and aquatic realms. For the fi rst time, deciduous plants shed their leaves into the water with the changing seasons, R

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PRIME VAL PROMENADE: Ichthyostega is the earliest known tetrapod to show adaptations for nonswimming locomotion, although it seems likely to have moved more like a seal than a typical land vertebrate. This animal also had some aquatic features, including a large tail and fl ipperlike

hind limbs, as well as an ear that appears to have been specialized for underwater use. How Ichthyostega divided its time between the terrestrial and aquatic realms is uncertain. But it may have dug nests for its eggs on land and hunted and fed in the water.

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creating environments that were attrac-tive to small prey but diffi cult for big fi sh to swim in. Moreover, because warm wa-ter holds less oxygen than colder water does, these areas would have been oxy-gen-poor. If so, the changes to the skele-ton described here may have given early tetrapods access to waters that sharks and other large fi sh could not reach by putting them literally head and shoulders above the competition. It was just hap-penstance that these same features would later come in handy ashore.

These breathing-related innovations sent tetrapods well on their way to be-coming land-worthy. Getting a grip on terra fi rma required further modifi ca-tions to the skeleton, however. An over-haul of the ear region was one such devel-opment. Many of the details of this trans-formation are still largely unknown. But it is clear that even in the tetrapodlike fi sh that still had fi ns, Panderichthys among them, the part of the skull behind the eyes had already become shorter, following a shrinking of the capsules that house the inner ears. If, as paleoenvironmental evi-dence suggests, Panderichthys dwelled in shallow tidal fl ats or estuaries, the reduc-tion in the inner ear may refl ect the grow-ing infl uence of gravity on the vestibular system, which coordinates balance and orientation. At the same time an increase in the size of the air chamber in its throat may have aided hearing. In some modern

fi sh this air sac “catches” sound waves, preventing them from simply passing straight through the animal’s body. From there they are transmitted by the sur-rounding bones to the inner ear. The en-larged air chamber evident in Panderich-thys would have been able to intercept more sound waves, thereby enhancing the animal’s hearing ability.

Modifi cations to the ear region were also closely tied to those in the gill sys-tem. To wit: a bone known as the hyo-mandibula—which in fi sh orchestrates feeding and breathing movements—

shrank in size and got lodged in a hole in the braincase, where it became the sta-pes. In modern tetrapods the stapes magnifi es sound waves and transmits them from the eardrum across the air space in the throat to the inner ear. (In mammals, which have a unique hearing system, the stapes is one of the three os-sicles making up the middle ear.) The fi rst stage of conversion must have oc-curred rapidly, given that it was in place by the time of Acanthostega. Quite pos-sibly it proceeded in tandem with the shift from fi ns to limbs with digits. But the stapes would not take on its familiar role as a component of the terrestrially adapted tympanic ear for millions of years. In the meantime, it apparently functioned in these still aquatic tetrapods as a structural component of the skull.

Taken together, these skeletal chang-

es have necessitated a sea change in the way we regard early tetrapods. Gone are the clumsy chimeras of popular imagina-tion, fi t for neither water nor land. What were once considered evolutionary works in progress—an incompletely developed limb or ear, for example—we now know were adaptations in their own right. They were not always successful, but they were adaptations nonetheless. At each stage of this transition were innova-tors pushing into new niches. Some, in fact, were highly specialized to do this.

Breaking the Moldby a nd l a rge , the limbed tetrapods and near-tetrapods unearthed thus far have been sizeable beasts, around a me-ter long. They preyed on a wide variety of invertebrates and fi sh and were prob-ably not fussy about which ones. We are beginning to fi nd exceptions to this gen-eralist rule, however. One is Livoniana, discovered in a museum in Latvia by Per Erik Ahlberg of Sweden’s Uppsala Uni-versity in 2000. This animal is repre-sented by some lower jaw fragments that exhibit a bizarre morphology: in-stead of the usual two rows of teeth lin-ing each side of the jaw, it had seven rows. Exactly what Livoniana might have been consuming with this corn-on-the-cob dentition we do not know. But it most likely had a diet apart from that of its brethren.

Renewed work on the first known Devonian tetrapod, Ichthyostega, is showing that it, too, diverged from the norm—contrary to earlier preconcep-tions. The ear region and associated parts of the braincase of Ichthyostega have long baffl ed researchers because they dis-play a construction unlike that of any other tetrapod or fi sh from any period.


L O W E RD E V O N I A NL O W E RD E V O N I A N

M I D D L ED E V O N I A NM I D D L ED E V O N I A N

U P P E RD E V O N I A NU P P E RD E V O N I A N

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280 million years ago

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TE TR APOD REL ATIONS: Tetrapods arose from lobe-fi nned fi sh like Eusthenopteron some 380 million to 375 million years ago, in the late Middle Devonian period.

JENNIFER A. CLACK, a Reader in verte-brate paleontology and doctor of sci-ence at the University of Cambridge, has been studying tetrapod origins for 25 years. A fellow of the Linnean Soci-ety, Clack’s outside interests include choral singing (particularly of early sa-cred music) and gardening. She is also a motorcyclist and rides a Yamaha Di-version 900.

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But with the aid of new fossils, fresh prep-aration of previously collected material and, crucially, CT scanning of key speci-mens, my colleagues and I have begun to make sense of this mysterious construc-tion. The best interpretation seems to be that Ichthyostega possessed a highly spe-cialized ear, but one that was geared for use underwater. Instead of having an ear-drum, as many modern terrestrial ani-mals do, at each side of the back of the head lay a chamber with strengthened top and side walls that was probably fi lled with air. Into the membranous fl oor of this chamber stretched a spoon-shaped and very delicate stapes, which presum-ably vibrated in response to sound im-pinging directly on the air in the cham-ber, transmitting these vibrations to the inner ear through a hole in the wall of the braincase. This arrangement would im-ply that Ichthyostega spent a good deal of time in water. Likewise, the animal’s tail fi n and fl ipperlike hind limbs suggest an aquatic lifestyle.

Yet other parts of the Ichthyostega skeleton bespeak an ability to get around

on land. It had incredibly powerful shoul-ders and forearms. And the ribs of the chest region were very broad and over-lapping, forming a corset that would have prevented the chest cavity and lungs from collapsing when on the ground. Even so, Ichthyostega probably did not locomote like a standard-issue land vertebrate. For one thing, its ribcage would have restrict-ed the lateral undulation of the trunk that typically occurs in tetrapod movement. And in contrast to fi sh, Acanthostega or other early tetrapods, Ichthyostega had spines on its vertebrae that changed di-rection along the spinal column, hinting that the muscles they supported were specialized for different jobs and that it moved in a unique fashion. This multidi-rectional arrangement of the vertebral spines parallels that in mammals today, but it was unheard of in Devonian tetra-pods until we studied Ichthyostega. All told, this latest evidence suggests that, rather than bending in the horizontal plane, as the body of a fi sh does, the body of Ichthyostega bent mainly in a vertical plane. The paddlelike hind limbs do not

seem to have contributed much forward thrust during locomotion—the robust forelimbs and large shoulders provided that. Thus, on land Ichthyostega may have moved rather like a seal, fi rst raising its back, then advancing both forelimbs simultaneously, and fi nally hauling the rest of its body forward.

In September, Ahlberg, Henning Blom of Uppsala University and I pub-lished a paper detailing these fi ndings in the journal Nature. If we are correct, Ichthyostega is the earliest vertebrate on record that shows some adaptations for nonswimming locomotion. It is impos-sible to say with certainty what Ichthyo-stega was doing ashore. It may have been eating stranded fi sh there but reproduc-ing in water, in which case it could have used its specialized ear to listen for po-tential mates. (This scenario implies that Ichthyostega was making noises as well as listening to them.) Alternatively, Ich-thyostega may have been eating in the water and listening for prey there, where-as it was using its forelimbs to dig nests for its eggs on land. Ultimately, however, A

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Fossils of early tetrapods and near-tetrapod fi sh have turned up at sites as far-fl ung as northwestern China and the eastern U.S. As a result, it is now apparent that these animals lived throughout the

tropics and subtropics of the ancient landmasses Laurasia and Gondwana. And the earliest tetrapods, it seems, inhabited freshwater and brackish water environments rather than strictly marine ones.

DEVONIAN DISCOVERIES

Metaxygnathus,New South Wales,Australia

Elpistostege, Quebec

Acanthostega, eastern Greenland

Humerus from unknown genus, Red Hill, Pa.

Sinostega, Ningxia Hui autonomousregion, China

Livoniana, Latvia and Estonia

Hynerpeton,Red Hill, Pa.

Ichthyostega, eastern Greenland

Tulerpeton, Tula region, Russia

Panderichthys, Latvia and Estonia

Mountain-building areas

Land areas

Shallow epicontinental seas

Ventastega, Pavari / Ketleri Formation, Latvia


its particular body plan was doomed, because no fossil dating later than 360 million years ago can be reliably attrib-uted to the Ichthyostega lineage. No doubt there were many such superseded designs over the course of early tetrapod evolution. Further work will be needed to confi rm these ideas, but the latest data demonstrate that Devonian tetrapods were more diverse than previously sus-pected. We are learning to expect more such surprises as these animals and their relatives become better known.

Have Legs, Will Travelthe fossils uncovered over the past two decades have done more than allowed scientists to trace many of the changes to the tetrapod skeleton. They have also provided fresh insights into when and where these creatures evolved. We are now reasonably certain that tet-rapods had emerged by 380 million to 375 million years ago, in the late Middle Devonian, a far tighter date range than the one researchers had previously pos-tulated. We have also determined that the early representatives of this group were nothing if not cosmopolitan.

Devonian tetrapods were scattered across the globe, ranging from locations that are now China and Australia, where creatures known as Sinostega and Meta-xygnathus, respectively, have turned up, to the eastern U.S., where the Red Hill humerus and a beast called Hynerpeton were found. Placing the fossil localities onto a paleogeographic map of the time, we see that these animals dwelled throughout the tropics and subtropics of a supercontinent comprising Laurasia to the north and Gondwana to the south. Their near-ubiquitous distribution in the warmer climes is a testament to how suc-cessful these creatures were.

Within these locales, Devonian tetra-pods inhabited a startlingly wide range of environments. Deposits in eastern Greenland that were the fi rst to yield such creatures indicate that the area was once a broad river basin dominated by periodic floods alternating with drier conditions. The river was unequivocally freshwater in origin and thus formed the basis for received wisdom about the en-

vironments in which tetrapods evolved. But the discoveries of such creatures as Ventastega and Tulerpeton in deposits representing settings of varying salinity have called that notion into question. The Red Hill site in Pennsylvania has proved particularly rich in providing a context for the tetrapods, yielding many fi sh species as well as invertebrates and plants. Like the eastern Greenland de-posits, it represents a river basin. Yet pa-leoenvironmental studies suggest that the region had a temperate climate, rath-er than the monsoonal conditions associ-ated with the Greenland fi nds. That is to say, early tetrapods may have been even more widespread than we thought.

Unfinished Businesswe st ill have much to learn about changes in anatomy that accompanied the rise of tetrapods. Although we now have a reasonable hypothesis for why the shoulder girdle and front limbs evolved the way they did, we lack an adequate ex-planation for the origin of the robust hind-limb complex—the hallmark of a tetrapod—because none of the fossils re-covered so far contains any clues about it. Only specimens of Ichthyostega and Acan thostega preserve this part of the anatomy, and in both these animals the hind limbs are too well formed to reveal how they took shape. Almost certainly no single scenario can account for all the stages of the transition. We also want to acquire a higher-resolution picture of the order in which the changes to the skeleton occurred, say, when the hind limb evolved relative to the forelimb and the ear.

The discovery and description of ad-ditional fossils will resolve some of these

mysteries, as will insights from evolu-tionary developmental biology. To that end, studies of the genetic-control mech-anisms governing the formation of the gill region in fi sh and the neck area in mammals and birds are just beginning to provide hints about which processes characterize both tetrapods and fi sh and which are unique to tetrapods. For ex-ample, we know that tetrapods have lost all the bones that protect the gills in fi sh but that the genes that govern their for-mation are still present in mice, where they function differently. We have also ascertained that in the neck region, the biochemical pathways that preside over the development of limbs have broken

down. Although biologists can easily in-duce extra limbs to grow on the fl ank of a tetrapod, this cannot be done in the neck. Something special happened when tetrapods fi rst evolved a neck that pre-vented limbs from sprouting there.

Other questions may be more diffi -cult to answer. It would be wonderful to know which one of the many environ-mental contexts in which tetrapod fos-sils have turned up nurtured the very fi rst members of this group (the available evidence indicates only that these ani-mals did not debut in strictly marine set-tings). We would also like to compre-hend fully the evolutionary pressures at work during each phase of the transi-tion. Lacking a perfect fossil record or recourse to a time machine, we may nev-er piece together the entire puzzle of tet-rapod evolution. But with continued work, we can expect to close many of the remaining gaps in the story of how fi sh gained ground.

M O R E T O E X P L O R EGaining Ground: The Origin and Evolution of Tetrapods. Jennifer A. Clack. Indiana University Press, 2002.

The Emergence of Early Tetrapods. Jennifer A. Clack in Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology (in press).

Although we now have a good explanation for why the front limbs evolved the way they did, we lack one for

the origin of the hind limbs because none of the fossils recovered so far contains any clues about them.

DISCOVERING TIKTAALIK

Furlano, Ms February 20th, 2014 Introductory Paragraph

This is where you include background information on

Tiktaalik, its discovery, and/or anything that would be helpful

background information for your intended audience.

Image goes above.

Caption underneath. An artist’s rendition of Tiktaalik roseae in

both water and on land.

Body of the Article These paragraphs should include information about the discovery.

Body of the Article

Conclusion Conclude your article with future

hopes, research, etc.

ArticleRubric

Criteria

1

2

3

4

TOTAL

Information(x3)

Poorknowledgeofinformation.Manyfactualerrors.Informationseemstobegatheredthroughonlyoneresource.Noreferencelistorextremelyincompletereferencelist.

Someknowledgeofinformation.Somefactualerrors.Informationgatheredtwotothreeresources.Referencelistincompleteand/ormanyformattingerrors.

Goodknowledgeofinformation.Fewfactualerrors.Informationgatheredfromfourtofiveresources.Referencelistcompletewithfewformattingerrors.

Outstandingknowledgeofinformation.Nofactualerrors.Informationgatheredthroughavarietyofresources.Referencelistcompletewithnoformattingerrors.

Presentation

Littletonoorganizationasanarticle.Noclearformatofintroduction,bodyparagraphsandconclusion.Incompletesections.

Barelyfollowstheoutlineofanarticle;introduction,bodyparagraphsandconclusionaswellasimageandcaptionpartiallycompleted,butmanyerrorsininformationplacement.

Followstheoutlineofanarticle;introduction,bodyparagraphsandconclusionaswellasimageandcaptioncompleted,butfewerrorsininformationplacement.

Followstheoutlineofanarticle;introduction,bodyparagraphsandconclusionaswellasimageandcaptionallproperlycompleted.

Creativity Nocreativityshowninheadlineorarticle.

Attemptedcreativityineitherheadlineorarticle.

Creativeheadline,ideasandconnectionsmadeinarticle.

Extremelycreativeheadlineandideaspresentedinthearticle.Exemplaryconnectionsmade.

Style,Spellingand

Grammar

Ideasextremelysegmented.Manyspellingand/orgrammaticalerrors(6ormore).

Verylittleflowofideas.Severalspellingand/orgrammaticalerrors(5‐6).

Goodflowofideas.Fewspellingand/orgrammaticalerrors(3‐4).

Excellentflowofideas.Veryfewspellingand/orgrammaticalerrors(0‐2).

SBI3U LESSON # 18

Teacher: Karina Chuah Date: March 5, 2014

Brief Description of your lesson:

Students will apply principles of evolution that they have learned in class to create their own story explaining the evolutionary history of an animal of their choice. Adapted from the Toronto Zoo Evolution Grade 12 activity.

Strand: Evolution Overall Expectation: C1 & C2

Grade: 11U Time required: 75 min

Materials:

None

Handouts/Transparencies:

Case study

Reserve (A/V, field trips, etc.):

School netbooks/ computer lab

HWK:

Work on assignment.

Enduring Understanding(s): � Evolution is the process of biological change over time based on the relationships

between species and their environments.

Specific Expectation(s): � C1.2 evaluate the possible impact of an environmental change on natural

selection and on vulnerability of species (e.g., adaptation to environmental changes can affect reproductive success of an organism)

� C2.2 use a research process to investigate some of the key factors that affect the evolutionary process (e.g., genetic mutations, selective pressures, environmental stresses)

Lesson (timeline): 0-10 min � Explore together with students ancient earth habitats (link from the BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/ancient_earth

10-15 min � Exploration of ancient earth as a lead-in to a discussion about the use of

technology to discover animal ancestors. � Things to ponder/discuss: How great would it be if we could go into the past/future

to actually be able to observe ancestor animals and identify how evolutionary processes have acted to modify them into the animals we see today?

15-25 min � Handout assignment to class. Take time to explain the details of the assignment

and clearly outline what is expected of them. Write on the board steps that they need to take to complete part 1 of the assignment and draw student attention to each point.

� Make sure every student writes down the due date on their assignment handout. (Due date will also be posted on website, but this is to hold students accountable as well – cannot claim they were never told when the due date is)

� Students will either be in the computer lab or have individual netbooks for this. Chalknotes: - Decide on an animal that you would like to study. - Good starting point to decide on animals to study further. Website classifies

animals base on adaptations. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations You will be required to do further appropriate research aside from information found in this website:

- You must check in with me once you have completed part 1 before moving on to part 2.

- Remember to consult your notes or textbook for a refresher on concepts and terms BEFORE directing your questions to me.

25-65 min: � Students will use this time to work on part 1 of their assignment individually. � As students start checking in with me after completion of part 1, students who

have successfully completed part 1 will move on to part 2. 65-75 min: � Remind students to wrap up their research to prepare to return the netbooks. � Provide examples of a National Geographic article (or any science article), a

pamphlet and presentation slides so students know what is expected of them for the final product.

Assessment: � The assignment will be a form of summative assessment. Students will be

evaluated on their ability to apply and synthesize the evolutionary concepts that they have learned.

EVOLUTION ACTIVITY

As an expert biologist working for National Geographic, you have been selected by your editor for a once in a lifetime opportunity to travel 3 million years into the future to document the evolution of an animal of your choice. Based on the data and observations you collect, you will have to present your findings to the editor. Your story must include the environmental conditions of the time period, as well as the appearance, lifestyle and characteristics of your chosen animal.

Assignment Outline:

Your assignment consists of three parts:

1) Observations of your animal and its environment in present day conditions

2) Observations of your animal and its environment in the future

3) Presentation of your findings. You may choose from the list below how you would like to present the data you have collected (from 1 & 2), tying in evolutionary concepts that you have learned.

a. Write an evolutionary article to be published in the magazine (500 words or less)

b. Create an educational pamphlet (double-sided!)

c. Create presentation slides, assuming that you will be presenting your awesome findings to the public and fellow scientists

Part 1: Mission Preparation – Observation Sheet

Pick a present day “ancestor” animal to observe. For example, if you love tigers and want

to come up with the evolution story of a new tiger species, complete your observations on

a tiger and a related animal, such as another big cat (feline). The objective of this exercise

is for you to be able to make inferences about the variation (both physical and behavioural)

of related animals living in different environments. These inferences in turn can lead to

logical and data based conclusions about the evolutionary trends of your animal.

Chose an animal you are interested in observing. In your notebook, set up a table similar

to this one and fill in the appropriate information.

The animal I wish to observe and eventually write about is the ________________________.

TASK

My animal: OBSERVATIONS

WRITTEN OR DRAWN

Related animal: OBSERVATIONS

WRITTEN OR DRAWN

Notice the characteristics, both physical and behavioural of the animal. (size, feet, location of eyes, ears, body covering, colour teeth, tail, diet, is it a predator or prey)

Notice the specific ways in which each animal adapted to its environment. Do they have one ancestor? If yes, can you find examples of divergent evolution? Of parallel evolution? Are they different species that have undergone convergent evolution as a result of similar ecological roles and selection pressures?

Part 2: Scientific Notes

Congratulations!!! You have arrived 3 million years in the future.

You have spotted an animal that you think may be a descendant of an animal you studied

in preparation for this mission. You obtain a DNA sample and quickly realise that you are

brilliant in your assumptions. In your notes you jot down a brief description of the animal’s

physical appearance (ex: size, feet, location of eyes, ears, body covering, colour (are

males and females different), teeth, tail, size of extremities, method of locomotion, special

features if any…) and how it differs from its ancestor. You may want to draw a quick sketch

to accompany written description. HINT: Think of your animal as an animal that could

adapt to changes with relative ease and can even alter its diet if necessary. The catch

however is that every decision you make regarding the animal’s appearance, behaviour

and ecological role must be based on an aspect of natural selection. Keep in mind that

evolution does not cause change to occur, but is rather a result of pressure upon the members of a population.

You remember that evolution can be behavioural as well as physical and so decide to

spend time on observing the behaviour of the animal (ex: lives in isolation or in groups,

passive or aggressive, when is it active). What is the ecological role of the animal (ex: diet,

is it a predator or prey, how does it fit into the food web)?

You use your AST (Awesome Scientific Tool) to quickly scan the environment and download

information on the selection pressures exerted on the animal (sexual selection, availability of

habitat, food, prey-predator ratios, competition, disease, etc.). You include this in your notes.

Point form notes are acceptable. Include a sketch of this new animal.

Part 3: Documentation – The Story

There are no limitations on the details you can include into your paper, but it should follow

some specific guidelines.

1) Should incorporate the data you gathered as evidence (e.g.: observation suggests

that animals living in cold climates have a ____ body size than animals living in

warmer areas. It is therefore not surprising that in this environment…)

2) Should incorporate at least two concepts from the “Concept List”. As you

incorporate each concept, you must demonstrate its relevance to your story.

3) Can include graphics and illustrations. Be sure to site the sources and give credit for

the material, including material taken from the Internet.

When incorporating concepts from the “Concept List” into your story, you must elaborate

on how they relate to your story. Simply including a concept word in your assignment is not

acceptable. For example stating, that “the animal became a carnivore because of selection

pressures” is not sufficient. You must explain what those pressures were and how they

influenced the evolution of the animal.

Concept List: 1. Natural selection: convergent evolution or parallel evolution or divergent evolution

2. Adaptation/ Adaptive radiation

3. Variation within species

4. Selection pressures and their roles

You will need to hand all 3 parts of this assignment to me by the due date. You will be graded on Part 2 and Part 3 of the assignment. (

Due date: _________________

Rubric for Scientific Notes (Part 2)

Total: /16

Activity Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

Environmental description

Student has described futuristic environment but did not provide adequate detail or comparison to present

Student has described futuristic environment but has not compared nor contrasted it to present

Student has described futuristic environment and has compared it to present day environment

Student has described in detail futuristic environment and has compared and contrasted it with present day environment

Description of animal

Student has described futuristic animal but did not provide adequate detail or comparison to present

Student has described futuristic animal but has not compared nor contrasted it to present day version

Student has described and/or sketched futuristic animal and has compared it to present day version

Student has described and/or sketched in detail futuristic animal and has compared and contrasted it with present day version

Behaviour

Student identified 1-2 behavioural trends but did not identify ecological role of animal

Student has described (2-3) behavioural trends but did not identify ecological role of animal

Student identified some (2-3) behavioural trends and ecological role

Student has described at least four behavioural trends and identified ecological role of animal

Selection pressures

Identified less than 3 selection pressures

Identified 3-5 selection pressures

Identified 4-6 selection pressures

Identified 6 or more selection pressures

Rubric for Part 3

Total: /12

Activity Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

The Story

Student has integrated some data, however it does not provide evidence in support of evolutionary changes described

Student has integrated appropriate data with some success, but it does not provide evidence in support of evolutionary changes described

Student has integrated appropriate data with some success, however it does not accurately support evolutionary decisions made

Student has successfully integrated the accurate data gathered about the animal to support assumed evolutionary outcomes

Student has incorporated one concept and demonstrated its connection, however the relevance is unclear

Students has incorporated one concept and demonstrated its connection and relevance to the story convincingly

Student has incorporated two concepts, and demonstrated their connections, however the relevance to the story is unclear

Student has incorporated two concepts and has demonstrated its connection and relevance convincingly

Student did not express creative planning, much improvement is needed in presentation of work

Student has demonstrated creativity, however there is improvement needed in the presentation of the work

Student expressed creativity in presentation method chosen with some attention to detail

Student expressed creativity. It is clear that effort and planning were part of this work

Documents

KICA Workbook: SBI 3U