Students "take a trip" to the Greater Antilles to observethe Anolis lizards. They study the body structures and habitat of different species, then plot this data on a map to look for patterns in their distribution. From the patterns they...

Students, in groups, classify furniture, share their categories and rationales, then note how their different schemes vary, perfectly logical and useful, but completely arbitrary.

Students create a binomial system of nomenclature for classifying organisms they encounter in a field trip to a natural history museum or from pictures in library books. They work in small groups to create accurate drawings and place...

Learners compare the features of gorilla to humans. In this biology lesson, students simulate adaptation using materials found in the classroom. They explain what exaptation means.

Around 50 million years ago, the mammalian ancestor of today's whales returned to the ocean. In this genomics science fair project, you will use mitochondrial protein sequencing to trace the evolution of whales and identify their closest...

Imagine that a biologist arrived at your big family reunion and had no idea who were sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc., but tried to sort it out by how all of you look. Just based on how you look, would s/he be able to guess whether...

This series of images shows the work of biologist Karl Niklas on the adaptations and evolution of plants. From The Evolutionary Biology of Plants.

This page provides an introduction to phylogenetic systematics, the way that biologists reconstruct the pattern of events that have led to the distribution and diversity of life. A tutorial "journey" into the Introduction, Methodology,...

A collection of articles on evolutionary genetics focusing on the topics of phylogenetics, mutation and molecular population genetics, the genetics of speciation, genome evolution, and evolution and development. Learn how to read a...

Find out how Dr. Carl Woese used RNA to develop the tree of life.

In this science lesson, students look at how animals have traditionally been classified in a tree of life diagram by examining the characteristics of plastic eggs. They then analyze the genetic code assigned for each egg and look for...

Understand the logic behind phylogenetic trees. Learn how to build a tree using data about features that are present or absent in a group of organisms.

Learn what a phylogenetic tree is, Learn how to read phylogenetic trees and determine which species are most related.

Constructing phylogenetic trees may be a daunting task for students, but this lesson plan is a simulation of what molecular biologists must do to determine relationships. This plan is for students who have a good grasp of DNA structure...

This tree of life is presented in an outline format. The outline is arranged in a hierarchical manner organized from the largest group (domain) to the smallest group (class). This interactive outline includes pictures of fossils and...

Charles Darwin's theory that all living organisms are connected in some way has been confirmed through intense studies over centuries. Understand the similarities that bond all things living to the same family tree by checking out this...

Identify basic trends in the evolutionary history of humans, including walking upright, brain size, jaw size, and tool use.

An introduction to Darwin's theory of evolution with hyperlinks to other topics on evolution, including a timeline of evolutionary thought.

This lesson plan involves comparison of amino acids to create a phylogenetic tree of primates. Learners will also use other species information to draw conclusions about evolutionary relationships.

This lesson plan focuses on differences in the amino acid sequence of hemoglobin and myoglobin proteins. They use the number of differences to create a phylogenetic tree.

See how scientists trace species through their evolutionary relationships.

From ABC News in Science, Will Dunham's article on orangutans covers topics related to the evolutionary process of "bipedal walking," or walking on two legs instead of four.

DNA of the mitochondria has most commonly been used to construct evolutionary trees. New field of population genetics hopes to resolve important questions in migration theories that involve Aboriginies in Australia, North America, and...

Identify and understand what angiosperms are and their relationship in the evolutionary tree of flowering plants.