Adaptive Radiation: Darwin's Finches
Finches on the Galapagos Islands have evolved to exploit almost every possible niche. This diagram shows the range of food sources available on the island and the different beak shapes adapted to exploit each of them.
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The Advantage of Sex
Why did sex evolve? The likely answers, in this essay for the Evolution Web site by science journalist Matt Ridley, may surprise you.
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All in the Family
In this Evolution Web feature, test your skills at judging who's who on the tree of life while you learn about the tools and methods of cladistics.
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Allopatric Speciation
These images from the Smithsonian Institution depict Nancy Knowlton's work with snapping shrimp in Panama. Knowlton found that the closing of the isthmus -- dividing the Pacific Ocean from the Caribbean -- resulted in new species of shrimp.
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Ancient Farmers of the Amazon
This video segment from Evolution: "Evolutionary Arms Race" tells the story of the leafcutter ant and the fungus it farms -- an example of mutually beneficial symbiosis.
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6-12 |
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Animal Body Plans: Homeobox Genes
The homeobox genes that define the basic body plan of mice and fruit flies are illustrated in this graphic from The Human Evolution Coloring Book by Adrienne Zihlman. The accompanying article describes how these genes act as "molecular architects" in all animal species.
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Animal Classification Game
Learn about classes of animals and test your ability to identify animals as mammals, birds, reptiles and more in this interactive activity adapted from Sheppard Software.
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Animal Defenses
In nature, survival is the name of the game. This video segment explores the world of animal defense and shows that predators don't always have the upper hand.
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Are We Alone?
This video segment adapted from NOVA features a variety of scientific perspectives on the age old question, "Are we alone in the universe?" Animations make vivid the improbability that we could intercept a radio wave signaling extra terrestrial intelligence.
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6-12 |
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Becoming a Fossil
This video segment describes how the Australopithecus afarensis skeleton known as Lucy could have been fossilized. Footage courtesy of NOVA: "In Search of Human Origins."
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Biological Invaders
This video segment from Evolution: "Extinction!" shows the impact of invasive species on native ecosystems.
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9-12 |
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Build-a-Fish
In this interactive activity from Shedd Aquarium, build a fish and then release it into the reef to search for food and evade predators. Try different combinations and observe how each kind of fish has unique adaptations that help it survive in its habitat.
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6-8 |
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Caves: Extreme Conditions for Life
This video segment adapted from NOVA raises the provocative idea that if life can exist in the most extreme environments on Earth — such as in dark, toxic caves — then perhaps living things can also survive in harsh environments on other planets.
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6-12 |
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Charles Darwin
Students learn about Charles Darwin -- his personal history, his strengths as an observer and independent thinker, and how he developed the theory of evolution.
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Co-Evolution
Students explore different types of symbiotic relationships that exist between species.
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The Common Genetic Code
Paul Nurse describes his research that showed that humans share some genes with organisms as different from us as simple brewer's yeast. Footage from Secret of Life: "Immortal Thread."
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Common Past, Different Paths
This time-lapse microphotography of developing embryos shows the common ancestry of all vertebrates. Footage from NOVA: "Odyssey of Life."
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Complex Relations
In this text excerpted from chapter 3, "Struggle for Existence," of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, Darwin draws on firsthand and historical information for his observations about evolution.
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Continental Divide: The Breakup of Pangaea
Examine geological evidence found in fossils, rock deposits, and ancient mountains that supports the theory of continental drift in this interactive activity adapted from the Exploratorium.
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Convergence: Marsupials and Placentals
This graphic illustrates some of the marsupial mammals in Australia and placental mammals in North America. Even though they are not closely related, these mammals look alike because they have adapted to similar ecological roles. From The Human Evolution Coloring Book by by Adrienne Zihlman.
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Coral Reef Connections
Dive in and explore what makes this beautiful world so fragile. In this Evolution Web feature, discover how coevolution has shaped the ecological relationships among reef creatures.
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Creepy Crawlies
This interactive feature from the NOVA: "Odyssey of Life" Web site explores the often unwitting relationship we share with the billions of organisms that reside in our bodies and in our homes.
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Darwin: Reluctant Rebel
This video segment from Evolution: "Darwin's Dangerous Idea," together with interviews with Daniel Dennett and James Moore, depicts Darwin struggling with publicizing his revolutionary theory.
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Darwin's Diary
Delve into the private thoughts of a reluctant revolutionary in this Evolution Web feature.
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Darwin's Letters: Collecting Evidence
This group of letters is a sample of the extensive correspondence Darwin carried on with a wide group of friends and colleagues as he collected evidence to support his theory of evolution by natural selection. From Charles Darwin's Letters: A Selection 1825-1859.
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Darwin's Letters to Lyell
In this letter written to his friend and mentor Charles Lyell less than three weeks after the publication of On the Origin of Species, Darwin describes the reaction of the great anatomist Richard Owen to his theory. From Charles Darwin's Letters: A Selection 1825-1859.
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Dating Lava Flows on Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawaiʻi
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists search
for carbonized remains of plants preserved in lava flows to find out how
long it has taken rain forests on Hawaiʻi to regenerate after
a volcanic eruption.
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3-12 |
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Deep Sea Vents and Life's Origins
Deep-sea vents are home to strange, luminescent life forms that thrive through chemosynthesis. This video segment from NOVA: "Volcanoes of the Deep" hypothesizes life's beginnings in this extreme environment.
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3-12 |
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Deep Time
Explore 4 billion years of life on Earth and discover major transformations, geological changes, and extinction episodes in this Evolution Web feature.
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6-12 |
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Deep Time
Students learn about deep time by visiting an interactive Web timeline, comparing geologic time periods to the calendar year, and setting up a live-action timeline in the classroom.
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9-12 |
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Deep Time and the History of Life
Students explore geologic time, visiting an interactive timeline, creating their own timeline and comparing deep time with the calendar year.
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6-8 |
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Double Immunity
Dr. Stephen O'Brien of the National Cancer Institute discovers a 700-year-old mutation that makes a person resistant to HIV infection. From Evolution: "Evolutionary Arms Race."
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9-12 |
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Evidence for Evolution
In this Evolution WebQuest you will investigate a variety of types of evidence for evolution.
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Evidence for Evolution
Students learn about the fossil record, the primary type of evidence scientists use to piece together the history of life and to support and refine the theory of evolution.
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6-8 |
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Evolutionary Arms Race
Students examine the interactions among different types of organisms and the importance of these relationships to the evolution of species.
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6-8 |
Lesson Plan
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Evolution of Camouflage
This video segment from Evolution: "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" illustrates the remarkable camouflage of a praying mantis against its leafy backdrop.
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3-12 |
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Evolution of the Eye
Zoologist Dan-Erik Nilsson demonstrates how the complex human eye could have evolved from simple light-sensitive cells. From Evolution: "Darwin's Dangerous Idea."
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9-12 |
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Evolution on Double Time
This excerpt from Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea by Carl Zimmer describes how gene duplication may have been the key to the rapid evolution of the early stages of life on Earth.
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Evolution Revolution
From the Evolution Web site, explore the rise of a revolutionary idea and the controversies that surround it.
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Evolving Ideas: How Do We Know Evolution Happens?
This video from Evolution focuses on one of the several lines of evidence for evolution -- fossils, highlighting the evolution of whales from land-dwelling mammals to the aquatic creatures we know today.
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Finch Beak Data Sheet
This graphic from Ecology and Evolution of Darwin's Finches by Peter Grant presents data from the Galapagos Islands, showing that a severe drought put selective pressure on the population of Darwin's finches and resulted in a change in the average beak size in the next generation.
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Finding Lucy
This Evolution video segment depicts the landmark hominid fossil finds by Don Johanson and his team in Ethiopia.
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Fish with Fingers
In this video segment from Evolution: "Great Transformations," paleontologist Jenny Clack explains that vertebrates evolved fingers before they invaded land.
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Floral Arrangements
Explore a few of the ways plants pollinate each other in this video segment from Sexual Encounters of a Floral Kind.
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Fossils: An Ancient Sea in Indiana
In this interactive activity from the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, Indiana, examine a piece of the ancient Borden Sea in what is now central Indiana. Explore the types of fossils found there and the clues they offer to ancient life on Earth.
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3-12 |
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Frozen Frogs
This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW shows how the common wood frog freezes solid every winter, an adaptation that allows the organism to survive the cold winter.
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6-12 |
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Function of Fever
Fevers are a sign of infection, but they may also be part of the cure. This drawing illustrates Matthew Kluger's lizard study, which supports the notion that fever can be beneficial.
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6-12 |
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Genetic Drift and the Founder Effect
This image of polydactyly illustrates one symptom of Ellis-van Creveld syndrome, which is commonly found in the Amish. Ellis-van Creveld is one example of the founder effect and genetic drift.
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9-12 |
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Genetic Tool Kit
The shared set of genes for body segments, possessed by all animals, are discussed in this video segment from Evolution: "Great Transformations."
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6-12 |
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Genetic Variation
This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" explores the genetic similarities and differences among organisms.
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9-12 |
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The History of the Theory of Evolution
Students make a timeline to learn where the theory of evolution falls in the history of scientific thought and how scientific advances are interwoven with world history.
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9-12 |
Lesson Plan
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HIV Immunity
Although repeatedly exposed to HIV, Steve Crohn's blood cells were never infected. Dr. David Ho investigates in this video segment from NOVA: "Surviving AIDS."
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9-12 |
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Homo Sapiens Versus Neanderthals
This video segment, adapted from NOVA, explores reasons why Homo sapiens had an advantage over Neanderthals in the pursuit of territory and natural resources.
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6-12 |
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How Evolution Works
Students learn about natural selection by discussing the evolution of the eye, genetic variation, adaptation, sexual selection, and the Galapagos finches.
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How Evolution Works
Students learn about natural selection, the mechanism that drives evolution.
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6-8 |
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9-12 |
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Human Chromosome 2
In this video segment adapted from NOVA: "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial," learn how modern genetics and molecular biology offer compelling support for evolution. The video features an interview with biologist Ken Miller.
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6-12 |
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Human Evolution
Students investigate hominid evolution. They learn the difference between a relative and an ancestor, study the emergence of bipedalism, and chart patterns of hominid migration.
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9-12 |
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Hummingbird Species in the Transitional Zones
This video segment from Evolution: "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" shows biologists Chris Schneider and Tom Smith studying hummingbirds and other animals in Ecuador. Their research is investigating the processes by which new species are formed.
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9-12 |
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Ingredients for Life: Carbon
This video segment adapted from NOVA illustrates why carbon is at the center of life on Earth. It also asks whether carbon-based life might exist on other planets.
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6-12 |
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Ingredients for Life: Water
This video segment adapted from NOVA goes on a whimsical journey in search of life forms thriving in extreme conditions on Earth and in outer space. Animations show ice on Jupiter's moon, Europa, and signs that water once existed on Mars.
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3-12 |
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Is Love in Our DNA?
Did evolution shape your taste in a mate? Take our interactive poll from Evolution.
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9-12 |
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Isolating Mechanisms: Lacewing Songs
Hear the different songs of three lacewing flies, which serve as reproductive isolating mechanisms between species and determine mate choice. Lacewing audio song from Charles Henry.
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9-12 |
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Laetoli Footprints
This Evolution video segment describes how the famous track fossils known as the Laetoli footprints might have been formed and what they can reveal about the creatures who left them.
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6-12 |
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Laetoli Trackways Diagram
View a diagram of the hominid footprints that archaeologist Mary Leakey's team found at Laetoli in Tanzania.
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Leafy Spurge
This video segment from Evolution: "Extinction!" shows how biological control is successfully combating North Dakota's infestation of leafy spurge, a non-native plant.
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9-12 |
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Life Before Oxygen
This Interactive NOVA: "Earth" video segment looks at ancient organisms that lived anaerobically, the origins of photosynthesis, and the new forms of life this process made possible.
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3-12 |
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Life's Grand Design
Are nature's complex forms evidence of "intelligent design"? In this Evolution essay, biologist Kenneth Miller explains how the processes of evolution account for complex structures such as the human eye.
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Life's Little Essential: Liquid Water
Why is water necessary for life? Why is it the best and possibly only liquid to do the job? This illustrated essay from NOVA Online answers these questions, explaining why planetary scientists are on the lookout for water elsewhere in the solar system.
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6-12 |
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Masters of Disguise
In the face of danger, what's a spineless animal to do? This video segment introduces the concept of camouflage -- how animals achieve it and how this form of disguise benefits both predators and prey.
Footage from NOVA: "Animal Impostors."
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The Mating Game
This interactive feature from the Evolution Web site takes a lighthearted but informative look at some of the strategies various organisms use to reproduce.
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6-12 |
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Microbe Clock
In this Evolution Web feature, learn how mutation and fast reproductive rates can allow deadly microbes to outpace medical breakthroughs.
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9-12 |
Flash Interactive
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Mike Novacek: Fossils in the Gobi
Biologist Mike Novacek discusses his discovery of mammal fossils in the Gobi Desert and what we can learn from them. From Evolution: "Extinction!"
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9-12 |
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Mimicry: The Orchid and the Bee
In this photograph from Oxford Scientific Films, a horned bee attempts to mate with an Ophrys orchid, which has evolved to resemble a female bee.
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9-12 |
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Molecular Clocks: Proteins That Evolve at Different Rates
From The Human Evolution Coloring Book by Adrienne Zihlman, four different proteins from humans and horses are compared in this graphic and article, and the reasons each protein evolves at its own characteristic rate are discussed. Each protein is useful for measuring evolutionary change over a different time scale.
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A Mutation Story
This video segment describes the role of the sickle cell gene in natural selection. Footage courtesy of the PBS series Secret of Life: "Accidents of Creation."
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6-12 |
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Nature vs. Nurture Revisited
Which dictates our existence -- our genetic makeup or the environment we grow up in? Kevin Davies offers an update on this long-standing debate, from the NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" Web site.
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9-12 |
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Night Vision
This interactive feature from the NOVA "Leopards of the Night" Web site highlights the nighttime habits and abilities of a wide range of nocturnal creatures.
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6-8 |
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Nowhere to Hide
Notice how the birds select orange or green bugs as you alter the levels of local pollution in this interactive activity from Kinetic City.
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K-8 |
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An Origin of Species
In this Evolution Web feature, witness for yourself how a new species can evolve as you observe natural selection and adaptive radiation in action.
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9-12 |
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Origins of Humankind
In this Evolution feature, examine a six-million-year-long fossil record to learn about the evolution of the human family.
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9-12 |
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Permian-Triassic Extinction
In this video segment from Evolution: "Extinction!", geologist Peter Ward discusses evidence for a Permian-Triassic mass extinction.
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9-12 |
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Radiometric Dating
In this video segment from A Science Odyssey: "Origins," scientists explain how Earth's age was determined by radiometric dating.
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6-12 |
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Record of Time
Enter the exciting world of dating ... fossil dating, that is. From Record of Time by anthropologist Dennis O'Neil.
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6-12 |
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The Red Queen
An example of the Red Queen hypothesis, the sexual population of Mexican Poeciliid fish are able to keep up with a changing environment, while the asexual populations are not as successful. From Evolution: "Why Sex?"
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6-12 |
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Riddle of the Bones
In this Evolution Web feature, piece together clues to how one of our early ancestors looked as you examine images from four significant fossil finds of Australopithecus afarensis.
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9-12 |
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Ruminants
Why do cows chew their cud? This video segment from Secret of Life: "Accidents of Creation" describes the physical adaptations that have made ruminants some of the most important, and certainly the most efficient, plant eaters on earth.
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6-12 |
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The Search for Another Earth
This NASA video provides an overview of technology under development to explore the planets and stars outside our solar system. These will be the most sensitive instruments built to date.
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3-12 |
Flash Video
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Sex and the Single Guppy
Play in our streams and see how exhibitionism has an evolutionary payoff in this Evolution simulation of Endler's experiment.
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6-12 |
Shockwave Interactive
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Sweaty T-shirts and Human Mate Choice
This video segment from Evolution: "Why Sex?" explores the "sweaty T-shirt experiment," which showed that humans may unconsciously be drawn toward a specific kind of genetic variation in a mate.
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9-12 |
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Tale of the Peacock
The peacock provides a classic example of sexual selection, the force behind nature's extravagances. From Evolution: "Why Sex?"
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Tetrapod Limbs
This illustration from Evolution by Monroe W. Strickberger shows the remarkable similarities between the bones in the forelimbs of various tetrapods, all of whose limbs serve very different functions.
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6-8 |
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Tiktaalik: Evolution of a "Fishapod"
In this media-rich lesson, students learn about transitional fossils and explore the similarities and differences between the structures of different animals. They focus particularly on Tiktaalik, a transitional fossil between aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates.
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9-12 |
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Toxic Newts
The father and son team of Brodie and Brodie track down the predator able to stomach a mysteriously hyper-toxic newt, an example of an evolutionary arms race in action. From Evolution: "Evolutionary Arms Race."
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6-12 |
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Tracing Human Evolution to Its Roots
This graphic from Biology by Kenneth R. Miller and Joseph Levine suggests how some recent hominid fossil finds might fit into the overall picture of hominid evolution. As more fossils are found and further analysis advances our understanding of human evolution, this picture will almost certainly be revised.
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Transitional Tetrapod Fossil
In this video segment from NOVA: "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial," learn about the discovery of a well-preserved transitional fossil and how such transitional fossils support the theory of evolution.
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6-12 |
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Unity of Life
Students learn how classification schemes are used to illustrate the relationships among organisms and, ultimately, the unity of life.
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6-8 |
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Walking Tall
This video segment from Evolution: "Great Transformations" illustrates the differences between the skeletons of a chimpanzee (a knuckle-walker) and a human (a biped).
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9-12 |
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