Send-in exercises: Evolution (G) Part 2

Lesson 1 – The Story of evolution

Write your answers in the spaces provided.

Study Lesson 1 carefully. For this lesson you are going to make your own
summary by filling in all the missing spaces in the sentences below.

a. Millions of years ago, living things first appeared in the sea .

Millions of years later other animals and plants lived on

the land .

b. A trilobite was a strange animal with no eyes. It used feelers

to find its way about at the bottom of the sea. The main plants at that
time were seaweeds .

c. The first fish had no jaws. Their bodies were

covered with bony scales for protection.

d. The first land animal was a myriapod which appeared about

428 million years ago.

e. Some time later, about 410 million years ago, a spider -like
animal appeared on Earth.

f. About 475 million years ago, the first terrestrial plants were similar to
the small liverworts and worts living today.

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Lesson 2 – The Story of evolution continued

2. Describe how the first reptiles differed from amphibians.

The first reptiles bony flaps. Amphibians meanwhile, did not.
Amphibians also had short, sturdy, and fat legs, could not flee from
enemies, but could use its jaws to defend itself. Eventually, these
amphibians evolved into the first reptilians, that had strange flaps and
spikes.
.

3. a) Name the other group of animals that evolved during the time of
the Dinosaurs (the largest reptiles).

The first mammals.

b) Describe what members of this group looked like?

The first mammals looked like rats.

4. a) When did the Great Ice Age occur?

The Great Ice Age began at about 2 million years ago.

b) Name one animal that was able to live in the snow during that
time.

Mammals such as the great wooly mammoth.

5. Today we are living in the Age of the Mammals. Why can it also be
called the Age of Flowering Plants?

Flowering plants had spread throughout the world and crowded out most
other plants.

6. a) In this space write the name of the world's oldest known bird.

Archaeopteryx

b) What does the name mean?

The name means ancient feather.

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Lesson 3 – Fossils

7. Study Lesson 3 carefully. For this lesson you are going to make your
own summary by filling in all the missing spaces below. Short lines
mean single word answers. Long lines mean that you need to complete
the sentence.

a) The first known humans lived between 2.3 and 1.4

million years ago.
b) Archeologists are people who try to find out what humans
looked like and how they lived a long time ago.

c) Homo habilis were extremely primitive human-like

mammals who walked upright, as we do, but their brains were
larger than ours.

d) Bones of the first known humans called homo

habilis (or 'handy man') have been found in a deep
gorge in East Africa .
These people used stone tools and ate their food
raw because they did not know how to make a
fire .

e) Homo erectus means 'upright man' and they walked

upright. They made stone tools. Fires kept
them warm and safe from wild animals.

f) Present day humans are homo sapiens .

called
It means man the wise .

g) Modern Humans are different from all other animals because:

I) We use tools.
II) Create fires.
III) Walk upright.
IV) Eat food cooked. _
V) "Creativity".

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 h) Two scientists looked at the rock strata in an area and made the
observations shown in the diagram and table below.

These observations show that the oldest layer of rock is tuff .

The oldest fossils would be in the bottom layer of tuff.

The youngest fossils would be in the upper layer.

Fossils are defined as traces of plants and animals that lived long ago.

Fossils give evidence to support the theory of evolution/ .

i) The rock strata drawn below shows the fossils found in each rock
layer. In the box provided, draw a diagram of the oldest fossil.

Diagram of oldest fossil

|-|-|-|||||||-|)

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Lesson 4 – Life through the ages

8. Fill in the missing spaces in the chart below by either writing in the
missing words or drawing the appropriate picture.

THE EVOLUTION TIME CHART

TIME EVENT PICTURE

600 to 4,500
million years
ago First living things appear.

They were one-celled (single-

celled) organisms. This was

the Age of Invertebrates

(animals without backbones).

440 to 500 First fish

million years
ago First vertebrates
First shelled animals e.g.
Trilobites. There were also

lampshells, sponges, jelly-

fish, snails and worms.

Seaweeds were the main

plants of the time.

First reptiles.
340 million
years ago

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 TIME EVENT PICTURE

135 to 180
million years ago
First true birds.
The first true birds believed
to have evolved from
reptiles. Their forelimbs
became suited for flight.

1 – 2 million
years ago
First true humans
Age of mammals
Age of flowering plants

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9. The two main branches on the ‘tree of life’ are the animal
kingdom and plant kingdom .

10. Study the diagram of the ‘tree of life’. Which two groups do you
think are more closely related?

 the insects and the echinoderms (e-kyne-oh-derms)

or
 the echinoderms and fish?

Explain your answer.

The echinoderms and fish are the two groups

more closely related, because they are more closely positioned in the chart
and stem from the same root.

11. Which group of organisms on the ‘tree of life’ has the largest number
of species? Write your answer in a sentence answer.

The animal kingdom. This is likely due to the sheer number of species that
can be found and classified to be insects.

12. The following question relates to the notes on ‘Special Features –

Adaptations’. Refer to these notes and choose two organisms. For
each organism describe an adaptation that helps it survive in its
environment.

Organism 1 Kangaroo. With huge back feet and tail as counter

balance, they can jump up to 30m in a single leap to
escape prey and travel to find food and water.

Organism 2 Elephant. The elephant's trunk is prehensile, which

means it can grab. The elephant's ears are large due to
its veins. It helps them transfer heat to them and cool
down. Male elephants have tusks to defend and fight
with. Elephants usually walk on their tip toes.

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