Changes Over Time: Evolution

Crocodile Steve was killed doing what he loved best - hanging out in the water, observing the wildlife around him. One wildlife adaptation cost Steve his life. Stingrays, catfish, and scorpion fish all have an adaptation that helps protect them against predators. This adaptation is

• venom.

• mimicry.

• camouflage.

• electric organs.

This image shows four different finches Charles Darwin found while on the Galapagos Islands. Which of these would be most adapted to eating nuts and seeds?

• Geopiza fortis

• Geospiza magnirostris

• Certhidea olivacea

• Geopiza parvula

The above image shows four different finches that Charles Darwin found while on the Galapagos Islands. This information led Darwin to develop the idea that organisms change, or evolve, over time. Which of these would best describe what Darwin saw as the MAJOR difference(s) between these finches?

• They all ate different food

• They all lived in different areas

• Both where they lived and what they ate were different

• Only their beak size was different and they lived together and ate the same food.

The discovery of the fossils of prehistoric whales that lived millions of years ago in Mississippi indicate that

• the whales were once land-dwelling mammals.

• the whales lived in an inland sea, which dried up.

• the whales were hunted by the native American tribes that lived along the river.

• the Gulf of Mexico once covered what is now the State of Mississippi.

The La Brea tar pits, located in California, contain a wealth of fossilized organisms that lived between 25,000 and 40,000 years ago. Columbian mammoths, sabertoothed cats, bison, wild horses, and land sloths are just some of the herbivores that have been trapped in the asphalt seeping from the interior of Earth. These herbivores were primarily grass eaters. Fossilized plant remains of live oaks, cedar trees, sagebrush, and grasses have also been discovered. Fossils found in the La Brea tar pits indicate a California climate that was

• similar to today's climate.

• similar to the present-day tundra.

• desert-like, much drier and hotter than today.

• milder than today's climate, with high precipitation.

The tundra is cold year-round. it has short cool summers and long, severe winters. The tundra has a permanently frozen sublayer of soil called permafrost. Like the desert, the tundra receives little precipitation, about 4 to 10 inches per year, and what does fall is usually in the form of snow or ice. It has long days during the growing season, sometimes with 24 hours of daylight, and long nights during the winter. Which adaptations would you expect to see in plants growing in the tundra?

• leaves with hair help shade the plant, reducing water loss.

• small and grow in clumps for protection from the wind and cold

• deep roots to help capture nutrients from deep below the surface

• tall plants with broad, thin, waxy leaves leaves so water easily runs off

Moles are rodents very similar to mice. They typically live underground, spending most of their lives below the earth's surface. Mice, on the other hand, may dig burrows to nest and sleep in, but they spend much of their time above ground. Their nests can be made of cloth, hair, and hay. Because moles live underground, they have developed differently than mice. What adaptation would you expect to see in moles?

• Moles have developed special claws used for clutching their young.

• Moles have developed markings that help them identify one another.

• Moles have developed a special pouch to keep newborn mole babies in.

• Moles have developed a membrane that can keep dirt out of their eyes.

Some giraffes have long necks and some have shorter necks. The ones with longer necks can reach food sources like tall trees as well as eat grasses on the ground. How will this difference MOST LIKELY help the giraffe population?

• Their number will remain unchanged.

• Over time, more will have longer necks.

• Giraffes will move from place to place for food.

• There will be great differences among the giraffe population.

Due to a rise in global sea level, a shallow sea covered most of eastern Virginia during the Cretaceous. Virginia had drifted north from the equator and conditions no longer supported the formation of limestone. The tropical climate disappeared, replaced by more temperate conditions. In place of limy sediments, sand and silt were deposited as the sea level receded in the region we now know as the Plateau region. Under these conditions, we would expect to find more fossils of ____________ life forms in this location.

• marine

• primitive

• single-celled

• terrestrial

During the Late Carboniferous, Indiana lay close to the equator, making the climate humid and warm. Swamps and wetlands were prominent in much of the state. Dominant fossil plants from this time include lycopods, conifers, and seed ferns (extinct gymnosperms). Plant material accumulated in these areas of Indiana and eventually became the source of Indiana’s abundant

• coal deposits.

• granite outcrops.

• layers of sandstone.

• limestone deposits.