Ecology
Mission 1—TRAINING TREES. Contains three sub-sections.
Red, Green, and Gecko: Make a phylogeny of the gecko, palm tree, and fungus.
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Which organism is more closely related to the fungus?
Plant
Animal
Familiar Faces: Make a phylogeny of the kingsnake, stick insect, goldfish, and dog.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
