Overview: This news brief, from January of 2006, traces the source of the SARS virus. Using phylogenetics, biologists have come up with a plausible path of transmission which may help us prevent future outbreaks of diseases such as HIV, SARS, and West Nile virus. Author/Source: UC Museum of Paleontology Grade level: 9-12 Time: 15 minutes Teaching tips: This article includes a set of discussion and extension questions for use in class. It also includes hints about related lessons that might be used in conjunction with this one. Get more tips for using Evo in the News articles in your classroom. Concepts: An organism’s features reflect its evolutionary history. Evolution results from selection acting upon genetic variation within a population. Scientists can test ideas about events and processes long past, very distant, and not directly observable. Scientists use the similarity of DNA nucleotide sequences to infer the relatedness of taxa. As with other scientific disciplines, evolutionary biology has applications that factor into everyday life. Teacher background: Classification/Phylogenetics Relevance

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