Found 43 resources:
Biodiversity loss threatens human well-being
Level(s):
- Advanced
Source:
- Rebecca Tarvin
Resource type:
- Annotated journal article
Time: 1 hour
Overview
This research article examines connections between biodiversity loss and ecosystem functions that matter to humans, such as providing access to food, fuel, shelter, and water. This open-access article has been translated into Spanish and Chinese by students in the UC Berkeley Integrative Biology program.
The causes of mutation with Molly Przeworski and Felix Wu
Level(s):
- Advanced
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Classroom activity
Time: 1.5 hours
Overview
In this article (and the linked assignments and student readings), students examine and interpret data that Molly and Felix used to study the causes of mutations that matter most for evolution. Use the tabs at the bottom of the feature to find related videos, assignments, and lessons to build this example into a lesson sequence on mutation.
Interview: Geerat Vermeij on the Fossil record
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- California Academy of Sciences
Resource type:
- Interview with Scientist
Time: 20-30 minutes
Overview
This interview with MacArthur Fellow and paleobiologist, Geerat Vermeij, covers much ground, including adaptations in the mollusks he studies, evolutionary arms races, punctuated equilibrium, extinctions, macroevolution, and the value of diversity.
Del caldo primigenio a las células: El origen de la vida
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Tutorial
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
Profundiza en los conocimientos actuales sobre el origen de la vida y en cómo los científicos y las científicas son capaces de investigar en los detalles de acontecimientos tan antiguos.
From soup to cells – The origin of life
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Tutorial
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
Delve into our current understandings of the origins of life and how scientists are able to investigate the details of such ancient events.
This article is located within Evolution 101.
DNA and mutations
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Tutorial
Time: 1
Overview
Mutations are the ultimate source of genetic variation and are therefore, essential to evolution. Learn more about the causes, effects, and types of mutations, as well as their role in evolution.
ChronoZoom
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- The ChronoZoom Team
Resource type:
- Infographic
Time: 1-6 hours
Overview
"Big History" is the currently active effort to bring together in a unified way all of the information about the past, both humanistic and scientific. One of the problems for anyone teaching Earth history or Big History is how to help students (or anyone) to comprehend the time scales. This series of graphic panels helps address this challenge by presenting Big History in a sequence of time scales.
Phylogenetic systematics, a.k.a. evolutionary trees
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Tutorial
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
Learn about phylogenetic systematics, the study of the evolutionary relationships among organisms, and how the field is shaping biological research today.
Natural selection from the gene up: The work of Elizabeth Dahlhoff and Nathan Rank
Level(s):
- Advanced
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Research profile
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Find out how we investigate evolutionary adaptations by following two scientists and their team as they figure out how the willow leaf beetle survives in different climates.
The Monterey Pine through geologic time
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- Perry, Frank
Resource type:
- Article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Understanding the evolutionary history of the Monterey Pine may help us conserve this species.
The ChronoZoom Time Atlas of Earth History and Big History
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Article
Time: 1 hour
Overview
This resource presents Big History in a sequence of time scales through graphic panels. Each panel is accompanied by a page of text, discussing the historical features shown in the panel.
Mass extinction
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Tutorial
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Usually, extinction operates at a fairly constant rate, culling some species while speciation generates new ones. However, at a few points in life's history the humdrum of regular extinction has been interrupted by mass extinctions. Learn more about these biodiversity crises.
It takes teamwork: How endosymbiosis changed life on Earth
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Article
Time: 30-40 minutes
Overview
You might be surprised to learn that descendants of an ancient bacterium are living in every cell of your body! Find out how endosymbiosis factored into the evolution of your own cells and learn about a modern example of this process.
High altitude adaptations: The work of Emilia Huerta-Sánchez
Level(s):
- Advanced
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Research profile
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
This research profile follows statistician and population geneticist Emilia Huerta-Sánchez as she studies the adaptations that allow Tibetan highlanders to live 13,000 feet above sea level without developing altitude sickness.
Using trees to uproot HIV: The work of Satish Pillai
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Research profile
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
This research profile follows scientist Satish Pillai as he studies the evolution of HIV within infected individuals. His research uses the tools of phylogenetics to investigate vaccine development and the possibility of curing the disease.
Fire ants invade and evolve
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Article
Time: 40 minutes
Overview
Understanding the evolution of fire ants may help scientists control the spread of these pests, which have already taken over much of the U.S.
Understanding evolutionary trees
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- Evolution: Education and Outreach
Resource type:
- Article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Many disciplines within biology (and many basic biology texts) have come to depend on evolutionary trees. Get the basics you need to understand and interpret these key diagrams.
This article appears at SpringerLink.
Evo-devo
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Tutorial
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
Understanding the process of development can help us understand how some major evolutionary changes occurred and why others did not.
Evo in the news: Where did all of Madagascar’s species come from?
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Recently, political unrest in Madagascar has threatened to set back the island's expanding conservation efforts, and criminals have taken advantage of the instability, looting protected forests for rare wood. This news story from October 2009 turns back the clock to consider the biogeographic processes that made Madagascar into a biodiversity hotspot in the first place.
Evo in the News: When fighting leukemia, evolutionary history matters
Level(s):
- Advanced
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
This news brief, from December 2011, describes how evolutionary history can factor into the success of a bone marrow transplant.
Evo in the News: What comes after mass extinctions?
Level(s):
- Advanced
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
This news brief, from September 2012, describes the aftermath of mass extinctions--what happens to surviving species in the wake of a massive extinction event.
Evo in the news: Sex, speciation, and fishy physics
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
More than 500 species of cichlid fish inhabit Africa's Lake Victoria. This news brief from March 2009 explains new research suggesting that the physics of light may have played an important role in cichlid diversification and in the recent drop in their diversity.
Evo in the news: Seeing the tree for the twigs
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 15 minutes
Overview
Recent research has revealed that, in at least some ways, chimpanzees have evolved more than humans have. This news brief from May 2007 delves into this finding further and, in the process, debunks common misperceptions of human evolution.
Evo in the news: Making sense of ancient hominin DNA
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 10 minutes
Overview
In March 2010 German researchers announced that they had managed to extract DNA from the 40,000 year old fossil bone from a child discovered in a Siberian cave and that it didn't match up to the known genetic sequences of either humans or Neanderthals! This news brief examines the evidence in more detail and considers what that evidence might — or might not — mean about such claims.
Evo in the News: Lessons for today in ancient mass extinctions
Level(s):
- Advanced
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
This news brief, from May 2012, describes new research on the end-Ordovician mass extinction and the lessons we might glean about extinctions going on around us today.
Evo in the news: HIV’s not-so-ancient history
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
First described in 1981, HIV is a distinctly modern disease. But for how long before its discovery did HIV lurk unnoticed in human populations? This news brief from November 2008 describes new research offering insight into when (and how) HIV got its start.
Evo in the News: Grasshoppers change their tune. Is it evolution in action?
Level(s):
- Advanced
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
This news brief, from December 2012, describes new research into how traffic noise affects insect populations. Several hypotheses to explain the change in grasshoppers' songs are examined.
Evo in the news: Got lactase?
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
The ability to digest milk is a recent evolutionary innovation that has spread through some human populations. This news brief from April 2007 describes how evolution has allowed different human populations to take advantage of the nutritional possibilities of dairying and links evolution with the prevalence of lactose tolerance among people of different ethnicities.
Evo in the news: Genealogy enthusiasts mine DNA for clues to evolutionary history
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 15 minutes
Overview
This news brief, from November 2007, turns an evolutionary lens on businesses that use DNA for genealogy research and, in the process, illuminates what their genetic tests really track.
Evo in the news: Gender-biased bacteria throw off an evolutionary balance
Level(s):
- Advanced
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 10 minutes
Overview
The percentage of southwestern whiteflies infected with Rickettsia bacteria has skyrocketed; but this is not a boon for local farmers, as the bacterium actively helps the pest spread. This news brief examines how evolutionary theory accounts for this and how we might turn it in our favor.
Evo in the news: Evolution in the fast lane?
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
Have humans, with all of our technological advances, exempted ourselves from further evolution? Perhaps not. This news brief, from February 2008, examines genetic research which suggests that human evolution may haved actually accelerated in our recent history.
Evo in the News: Acidic oceans prompt evolution
Level(s):
- Advanced
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
This news brief, from October 2012, describes new research into the evolutionary response that ocean acidification may prompt in some plankton species.
Evo in the news: A species’ unwelcome inheritance – extinction risk
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Even as the world loses species at an unprecedented rate, conservationists are struggling to save them. But where should they focus their efforts? This news brief from September 2009 describes new research suggesting that evolutionary history is an important factor in determining which species are at the gravest risk of extinction.
Cells within cells: An extraordinary claim with extraordinary evidence
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- Understanding Science
Resource type:
- Article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
When biologist Lynn Margulis revived the strange-sounding idea that the merging of cells played a prominent role in the evolution of complex life, the scientific community roundly rejected the notion. Today, this idea is accepted as a textbook fact. Learn more about the evidence and social factors that spurred the acceptance of this key aspect of evolutionary theory.
This article is available from the Understanding Science website.
Bringing homologies into focus
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- Evolution: Education and Outreach
Resource type:
- Article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
There's more to homologies and analogies than the iconic examples (e.g., the tetrapod limb) found in every high school textbook. This article goes beyond the basics to explore the many evolutionary scenarios that result in homoplasies and the many levels at which homologies might occur.
This article appears at SpringerLink.
Biological warfare and the coevolutionary arms race
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Article
Time: 45 minutes
Overview
The rough-skinned newt looks harmless enough but is, in fact, packed full of one of the most potent neurotoxins known to man. Find out how an evolutionary arms race has pushed these mild-mannered critters to the extremes of toxicity and how evolutionary biologists have unraveled their fascinating story.
Why the eye?
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Article
Time: 30-45 min
Overview
Eyes are something of an icon of evolution. How did such an integrated, multi-part adaptation evolve? While many different animals have complex eyes, untangling their evolutionary history reveals both remarkable diversity and surprising similarity.
Webcast: Selection in action
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Resource type:
- Video Lecture
Time: 60 minutes
Overview
In lecture two of a four part series, evolutionary biologist David Kingsley discusses how just a few small genetic changes can have a big effect on morphology, using examples from maize, dog breeding, and stickleback fish.
This lecture is available from Howard Hughes' BioInteractive website.
Webcast: Fossils, genes, and embryos
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Resource type:
- Video Lecture
Time: 60 minutes
Overview
In lecture three of a four part series, evolutionary biologist David Kingsley examines the original objections to Darwin's theory and shows how modern evidence supports the theory.
This lecture is available from Howard Hughes' BioInteractive website.
A look at linguistic evolution
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- Evolution: Education and Outreach
Resource type:
- Article
Time: 40 minutes
Overview
We typically think of evolution occurring within populations of organisms. But in fact, evolutionary concepts can be applied even beyond the biological world. Any system that has variation, differential reproduction, and some form of inheritance will evolve if given enough time. Find out how an understanding of evolution can illuminate the field of linguistics.
This article appears at SpringerLink.
¿De donde vienen todas las especies de Madagascar?
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Continuando la celebración del tema de Octubre en el Año de la Ciencia, las ciencias de la tierra y el planeta Tierra, la historia de este mes se centra en cómo la geografía y la geología han moldeado la evolución de la vida en uno de los lugares más singulares de la Tierra. Madagascar, la cuarta isla más grande del mundo, se encuentra en el Océano índico a varios cientos de kilómetros de la costa sureste de áfrica y constituye el hogar de una notable variedad de especies vegetales y animales, incluido el aye aye, la fossa, el camaleón y el árbol baobab...
Sexo, especiación y física subacuática
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 20 minutes
Overview
Evolución en las noticias relata una reciente historia que señala como comprender física básica puede revelar como la evolución esta ocurriendo hoy — en especial, como la física de la luz tiene influencia sobre la selección sexual, especiación y el colapso de la biodiversidad, producto de la polución causada por los humanos...
La herencia inoportuna de una especie: riesgo de extinción
Level(s):
- Advanced
- General
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- Evo in the News article
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
El tema de septiembre, biodiversidad y conservación, en celebración del Año de la Ciencia, la historia de este mes esta basada en el enemigo de la diversidad: la extinción. El mundo se enfrenta a lo que podría ser la sexta extinción masiva. Estamos perdiendo especies a un ritmo sin precedentes — 100 a 1000 veces más alto que a lo largo de la mayor parte de la historia de la tierra...