ACTIVITY 1

Evidence of Evolution

**NOTE: THIS ASSIGNMENT IS NOT INTENDED TO BE PRINTED OUT - COMPLETE IT IN THIS GOOGLE
DOC! Please answer each question in the text box provided. The text boxes will expand as you write in them. Each
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Background: When Charles Darwin first proposed his ideas of evolution, he performed an exhaustive
amount of research to provide as much evidence as possible. Today, the major pieces of evidence for
evolution can be broken down into the fossil record, embryology, comparative anatomy, and molecular
biology. In this activity, we are going to learn about what each of these pieces are and how each of them
are evidence for evolution.

Part 1: Fossils

This is a series of skulls and front leg fossils of organisms believed to be ancestors of the modern-day
horse.

Source: http://www.iq.poquoson.org

1. Give two similarities between each of the skulls that might lead to the conclusion that these are all
related species.
When the horn on the nose is coming off the head
The pattern of the teeth of the jaws

2. What is the biggest change in skull anatomy that occurred from the dawn horse to the modern horse?
 The skull size and every one of the skulls features.

3. What is the biggest change in leg anatomy that occurred from the dawn horse to the modern horse?
The biggest change was the fingers all joining into one hoof.

4. What does this short exercise indicate about our ability to see evidence of evolution through the fossil
record?
Fossil records show us the progression of the changes in a organism that are related in a fossil over a
period of time.

Part 2: Embryology

Organisms that are closely related may also have physical similarities before they are even born! Take a
look at the five different embryos below:

Source: http://www.starlarvae.org

1. Hypothesize which embryo is from each of the following organisms:

Species Embryo

Chicken D

Rabbit E

Tortoise C

Salamander B

Fish A

These are older, more developed embryos from the same organisms.
 2. Hypothesize which embryo is from each of the following organisms:

Species Embryo

Chicken D

Rabbit E

Tortoise C

Salamander B

Fish A

These are embryos at their most advanced stage, shortly before birth.

3. Describe how the embryos changed for each of these organisms from their earliest to latest stages.

Species Anatomical Changes From Early to Late Stages

Chicken The chicken developed a round head and limbs plus a beak

Rabbit It developed a round shaped head and limbs

Tortoise It developed limbs a round shaped head and a shell

Salamander It developed a tail and gills and limbs

Fish It developed gills, tail, and fins, and had a smaller head
 4. Look again at the five embryos in their earliest stages. Describe the patterns you see. What physical
similarities exist between each of the embryos?
They all have a tail with no limbs, the same shaped head, with big heads.

5. Does this suggest an evolutionary relationship? Explain how these embryos can be used as
evidence of a common ancestor between each of these five organisms.
They all look the same as when they are embryos all start with the same structures as a embryo the look
the same this leads people to believe that they are

6. What does this short exercise indicate about our ability to see evidence of evolution through
embryonic development?
What it allows us to do is see similarities among organisms but then they look fully different when they
are fully developed.

Part 3: Comparative Anatomy

Homologous Structures. Shown below are images of the skeletal structure of the front limbs of 5 animals:
crocodile, whale, cat, bird, and bat. Each animal has a similar set of bones.

Notice the similarities of the bones present according to this key:

● Humerus [dotted]
● Ulna [striped]
● Radius [white, next to the Ulna]
● Carpals [outlined in spots]
● Metacarpals [white - between Phalanges and Metacarpals]
● Phalanges [white - at the tips of each “finger”]
 1. For each animal, indicate what type of movement each limb is responsible for, and compare the
structure to the other 5 organism’s limbs shown:

Animal Primary Functions Compare structure to other 5 organisms

Whale Swimming Small hand with long fingers

Cat Walking Small hand long fingers with a distinct

thumb small and up some of the bones are
together

Bat Flying Long finger bones tiny hand

Bird Flying Long arm bones not separated and and

finger bones are not fused together

Crocodile Swimming/ walking separated finger average sized hand and

average length

2. Homologous Structures are structures that have similar FORM, but not similar function. What does
this short exercise indicate about our ability to see evidence of evolution through Homologous
Structures?
The structures have the same bones, meaning they probably but the bones will change the size.

Analogous Structures. Compare the anatomy of the butterfly and bird wing below.

3. What is the function of each of these structures?

The function of these structures is flying.

4. How are they different in form? Give specific differences.

The birds wing is made out of bones and feathers and bones the butterfly wing is made out of
membranes and tiny scales
 5. Structures that have similar functions, but different forms, are called Analogous Structures. What
does this short exercise indicate about our ability to see evidence of evolution through Analogous
Structures?
The structures even though they have the same material they are relatively the same but they are
different species because of the organisms they have in their body.

Vestigial Structures. Compare the overall body structure of the cave fish and the minnow below.

6. What is the biggest, most obvious difference between the body structure of these two fish?
The obvious difference is that the cave fish has no eyes.

7. Assume the two fish came from the same original ancestor. Why might the cave fish have evolved
without eyesight?
The cave fish not having eyes might mean that the other senses it has are probably stronger.

8. What kind of sensory adaptation would you hypothesize the cave fish has to allow it to navigate in a
cave, including catching and eating food?
Another sensory that the cave fish has is sense and hearing. Maybe he has a stronger sense of smell or
hearing instead of being able to see.

9. These structures - ones that had purpose in ancestors, but no longer do - are called vestigial
structures. What does this short exercise indicate about our ability to see evidence of evolution
through Vestigial structures?
The other organisms probably have no other use anymore so now the strongest is another sense that the
fish still has.

Let’s Wrap this Up and Make Connections

1. You have now studied three different types of anatomical structures:

● Homologous structures show individual variations on a common anatomical theme. These
are seen in organisms that are closely related.
 a. Give an example of a homologous structure from this activity:
An example is the limbs of crocodiles, bats, whales, and cats

● Analogous structures have very different anatomies but similar functions. These are seen in
organisms that are not necessarily closely related, but live in similar environments and have
similar adaptations.
a. Give an example of an analogous structure from this activity:
An example is the wings of a butterfly and a bird.

● Vestigial structures are anatomical remnants that were important in the organism’s
ancestors, but are no longer used in the same way.
a. Give an example of a vestigial structure from this activity:
An example of vestigial are the eyes on the cave fish

2. How are homologous structures an example of evidence of evolution?

It is evident that species had an ancestor but now they are using the pieces differently now.

3. How are analogous structures an example of evidence of evolution?

They are evidence of species evolving to fit their environment because they are structures that are not
built the same, but look similar and have the same function.
4. How are vestigial structures an example of evidence of evolution?
There is evidence of the species evolving out and they are no longer on need of structure.

Part 4: Molecular Biology

Cytochrome c is a protein found in mitochondria. It is used in the study of evolutionary relationships

because most animals have this protein. Cytochrome c is made of 104 amino acids joined together. Below
is a list of the amino acids in part of a cytochrome protein molecule for 9 different animals. Any sequences
exactly the same for all animals have been skipped.

1. For each non-human animal, take a highlight or mark any amino acids that are different than the
human sequence. When you finish, record how many differences you found in the table on the next
page.

42 43 44 46 47 49 50 53 54 55 56 57

Human Q A P Y S T A K N K G I
Chicken Q A E F S T D K N K G I

Horse Q A P F S T D K N K G I

Tuna Q A E F S T D K S K G I

Frog Q A A F S T D K N K G I

Shark Q A Q F S T D K S K G I

Turtle Q A E F S T E K N K G I

Monkey Q A P Y S T A K N K G I

Rabbit Q A V F S T D K N K G I

58 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 100 101 102 103 104

Human I G E D T L M E K A T N E

Chicken T G E D T L M E D A T S K

Horse T K E E T L M E K A T N E

Tuna V N N E T L R E K A T S -

Frog T G E E T L M E S A C S K

Shark T Q Q E T L R I K T A A S

Turtle T G E E T L M E D A T S K

Monkey T G E D T L M E K A T N E

Rabbit T G E D T L M E K A T N E

Animal Number of Amino Acid Animal Number of Amino Acid

Differences Compared to Differences Compared
Human Cytochrome C to Human Cytochrome C

Chicken 7 Shark 14

Horse 5 Turtle 8

Tuna 11 Monkey 1

Frog 9 Rabbit 4

2. Based on the Cytochrome C data, which organism is most closely related to humans?
 On the graph Cytochrome C data, the monkey is most closely related to humans.

3. Do any of the organisms have the same number of differences from human Cytochrome C? If so,
which ones? In situations like this, how would you decide which is more closely related to humans?
None of the organisms have the same number of differences from human Cytochrome C. But if there
were a situation like that, maybe comparing the other forms of empirical evidence for evolution would
allow you to determine which is more closely related to humans.

4. What does this short exercise indicate about our ability to see evidence of evolution through
Molecular Biology?
This exercise indicates that we can analyze DNA to look for similarities to determine potential relation,
common ancestors and see evidence of evolution by determining how many differences there are
between different animal/plant DNA codes for various genes.

Part 5: Conclusion

1. Charles Darwin published his book On the Origin of Species in 1859. Of the different types of
evidence that you have examined, which do you think he relied upon the most, and why?
Since charles darwin published a book about origin species, I am guessing that he relied on different
structures to help him.

2. Let’s bring this back to our unit . . . how would you explain evolution IN YOUR OWN WORDS, and
how do these 4 Evidences of Evolution fit into our understanding of evolution?
The 4 things that you do is
1) Examine fossils
2) Look at embryo showing common original steps
3) Now compare anatomy
4) Search for DNA similarities

ACTIVITY 2
Patterns and Terms of Evolution

Background: Let’s take a step back and look at the BIG PICTURE of Evolution. Evolution happens
on a POPULATION level, by definition. However, when you step outside of JUST that population -
there is a bigger picture, bigger pattern that tells a story. We are going to look at a few different
“bigger picture stories” of evolution in these patterns!
Directions:
1. Fill out the chart below with the information you learn through the series of video clips on
the next page.

Pattern/Term of Definition in Example Picture to help What would

Evolution your own words you remember cause this
pattern of
evolution?

Convergent Two or more distinct Bird, bat, butterfly Living in similar

Evolution species share traits environments
NOT due to a
common ancestor

Divergent Two or more species Dog and fox diverging Organisms having a
Evolution diverge from a from wolf common ancestor and
common ancestor then moving into
different
environments

Adaptive Organisms becoming Darwin’s finches A population getting

Radiation different to fill niches split into different
in an ecosystems that would
ecosystem/different cause each new
ecosystems population to evolve
to their new
ecosystem
 Convergent vs.
Divergent Evolution These patterns of evolution are talking about populations either becoming MORE ALIKE,
or populations becoming MORE DIFFERENT over time. This video is a QUICK explanation
Clip: Convergent of what is happening with both. Be sure to fill out your table as you watch!
Evolution vs
Divergent Evolution

This video doesn't actually use this term - but this example, and what happened IS a
Adaptive Radiation perfect example of it. Adaptive Radiation is "the diversification of a group of organisms
into forms filling different ecological niches." In other words, one population evolves into
Clip: Evolution by different phenotypes and eventually different species to fill "roles" in the environment. In
Natural Selection the case of the finches it was because they were on different islands with different food
types/sources. Watch this video - it'll fill ya in :)

Individual populations are not evolving individually in this world - often, two (or more)
populations are forcing each other to evolve. That concept is called "coevolution". A simple
example would be if a rabbit population got faster over time because the fox population
Coevolution only caught the slow rabbits, over time the faster foxes would also be selected for because
they could catch those faster rabbits. So over many many many many generations the
Clip: Coevolution
foxes and rabbits would "coevolve" - each one becoming faster due to the pressure put on
it by the other species. This short video shows you a more complex example - and
explains it in more detail.

This isn't exactly a PATTERN of evolution - but rather what can happen when evolution
Speciation occurs to individuals DIFFERENTLY from the same species. Ultimately, speciation is the
formation of a new species. Remember that individuals from two different species cannot
Clip: Reproductive successfully reproduce. This process, speciation, is how individuals from the same
Isolation and population can change enough that they would eventually become two (or more) different
Speciation species. This is what happened in the Adaptive Radiation example with the finches. Watch
this quick video to learn a bit more about it.

This term can come up in many different conversations - but in this specific situation we
Extinction
are focusing on extinction caused by a species inability to compete or adapt. If
Clip: Extinction of populations cannot change over time to adapt to the changing pressures of their
environments - they will eventually become extinct. This video covers that - and a bigger
Species
picture of extinction in general.

KEEEEEP GOOOOING . . .
Let’s make sure we understand by answering some questions:

1. In your own words explain what would cause two species to go through divergent
evolution.
Not the same pressures in their environment changes and it will make an organism “fit”. Over
time this will cause different adaptations to be selected for - and will cause the populations to
evolve differently over time.

2. In your own words explain what would cause two species to go through convergent
evolution.
There are different species that live in the same environment, there are somewhat of the same
structures/adaptations that cause them to be fit. Over time, both species will increase the
frequencies of those “fit” adaptations and will evolve to look more similar.

3. In your own words explain what would cause two species to go through coevolution.
What would cause this is if the species interact with one another very closely.

4. What circumstances cause adaptive radiation?

What causes adaptation radiation is a species splitting into many different environments

5. Explain how speciation occurs due to adaptive radiation.

What causes speciation to occur is when the population becomes different and then they have
different adaptations.

6. Which pattern of evolution does the evidence of analogous structures support? Explain.
The pattern of evolution, the evidence of analogous structure support is being able to be in the
different environments.

7. Which pattern of evolution does the evidence of homologous structures support? Explain.
The evidence of homologous structures supports divergent evolution because it is structures
that are BUILT the same but have evolved over time to have different functions.

8. Which pattern of evolution does the evidence of vestigial structures support? Explain.
The pattern of evolution is The evidence of vestigial structures supports speciation or divergent
evolution because it is individual species.

9. Relate the terms evolution and extinction.

Evolution mean’s the population of a species until it is all out.