Mission 1—TRAINING TREES. Contains three sub-sections.
Red, Green, and Gecko: Make a phylogeny of the gecko, palm tree, and fungus.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- Which organism is more closely related to the fungus?
- Plant
- Animal
Familiar Faces: Make a phylogeny of the kingsnake, stick insect, goldfish, and dog.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- What trait (from the tree) do all of these animals have in common?
- They’re all amniotes
- They all have backbones
- They all have bilateral symmetry
Tree of Life: Vegetarian Edition: Make a phylogeny of the banana, lemon, seaweed, radish, and onion.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- Is the banana more closely related to a lemon or to an onion?
- Lemon
- 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.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- Do birds have anything in common with dinosaurs?
- Absolutely
- No way
- What trait do all five of these animals share?
- Shafted feathers
- Wishbone
- 2-fingered hand
One Small Step: Make a phylogeny of Acanthostega, Eusthenopteron, Tulerpeton, and Tiktaalik.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- According to the tree you just built, what is the first trait that helped aquatic species evolve into creatures that lived on land?
- Eyes located on top of the head
- Strong arm-like bones
- Webbed digits
Origin of Whales: Make a phylogeny of the hippo, killer whale, blue whale, Ambulocetus, Dorudon, and Pakicetus.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- Which of the following species does not have tail flukes?
- Blue whale
- Pakicetus
- Dorudon
- Killer whales
Mission 3—DNA Spells Evolution. Three sub-sections.
Frog Legs and Fish Eggs: Make a phylogeny of the coelacanth, frog, and cichlid.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
The DNA sequence of the West Indian Ocean coelacanth is closest to which species?
- Western clawed frog
- Midas cichlid
One fish, two fish, red fish, lungfish: Make a phylogeny of the lungfish, cichlid, coelacanth, great white shark, and frog.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- In 2013, scientists found that coelacanths are not the closest relatives of four-footed amphibians and other animals. Which species is?
- Midas cichlid
- South American lungfish
- Western clawed frog
- Great white shark
Where the tiny wild things are: Make a phylogeny of the six microbes.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- You build this tree using only DNA information. Why was examining DNA better than considering physical traits?
- Physical traits in single-celled organisms are hard to examine.
- Organisms that behave differently can be genetically similar.
- Certain traits evolve multiple times in multiple species, and DNA helps us track those changes.
- All of the above
MISSION 4—Biogeography: Where life lives. Three sub-sections.
Saving Hawaiian Treasures: Make a phylogeny of the Hawaiian birds.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- 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?
- Kaua’i ‘amakihi
- I’iwi
- ‘Akiapola’au
- Po’ouli
Cone Rangers: Make a phylogeny of the seven plant species.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- 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?
- It’s a coincidence
- Both species share an ancestor that lived when the world had supercontinents.
- The trees are adapted to seawater and floated between continents.
- No inferences can be made.
Kangaroos, gliders, and snakes, oh my! Make a phylogeny of the seven animals.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- 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?
- Their similarity is a coincidence.
- They’re similar because they lived near each other on Pangea and separated when the continent split.
- They have similar traits because they both live in deserts where burrowing and nocturnal behavior are beneficial.
- Unrelated organisms that live far apart but evolve similar traits—what do we call this process?
- Natural selection
- Monophyly
- Convergent evolution
- Homology
Mission 5—TREE OF LIFE AND DEATH. Three sub-sections.
Hosting Blood Flukes for Dinner: Make a phylogeny of the five blood flukes.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- If blood flukes were to exhibit strict cophyly over millions of years, you would predict that blood flukes would:
- Evolve in a way that’s completely different from their current host.
- Evolve in a manner that parallels the evolution of their host.
- Spread to a species that’s not closely related.
Fatal Fangs: Make a phylogeny of the six snakes.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- Which snake is most closely related to the unknown snake?
- Black whip snake
- Fierce snake
- King brown snake
- Tiger snake
- Taipan snake
- Which anti-venom will save Tyler?
- Antivenom A
- Antivenom B
- Antivenom C
- Antivenom D
Dawn of a Modern Pandemic: Make a phylogeny of the seven virus strains.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- Which ape virus is most closely related to the HIV virus that has killed about 39 million people due to AIDS?
- Chimp SIV-EK505
- Chimp SIV-MB897
- Chimp SIV-TAN1
- Gorilla SIV
Mission 6–YOU EVOLVED, TOO. Three sub-sections.
Planet of the Apes: Make a phylogeny of the great apes.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- Based on this tree, who is your closest living relative?
- Chimpanzee
- Gorilla
- Orangutan
- Which great ape is most distantly related to humans?
- Chimpanzee
- Gorilla
- Orangutan
Back to skull: Make a phylogeny of the human ancestors.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- Which of the following can be inferred from the tree?
- The closest living relative of sapiens is H. erectus.
- erectus is more closely related to H. neanderthalensis than to H. sapiens.
- afarensis is more closely related to living chimps than to living humans.
- 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.
- Paste a screen shot of your tree here:
- With which archaic human species did some of the ancestors of modern Europeans interbreed during the past 100,000 years?
- Australopithecus afarensis
- Denisovan
- Homo erectus
- Neanderthal
- Homo habilis