Why is Australia home to the world's only population of kangaroos? The answer? Speciation! Biology scholars discover the factors that cause new species to emerge through an engaging video as part of a Fuse School playlist on Evolution. The narrator tells the story, beginning with Pangea and ending with the isolated clusters, of unusual animals in places such as Madagascar and the Galapagos Islands.

Concepts

speciation, habitats, animal adaptations, reproductive isolation, the galapagos islands, australia, madagascar, continental drift

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Incorporate the resource into a natural selection unit
• Challenge learners to research other species that have developed unusual characteristics when cut off from others of their kind

Classroom Considerations

• The video is suitable for pupils with a basic level of knowledge of reproduction and animal adaptations

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• Though brief, the resource provides a fascinating look at the process of evolution
• Animated scenes show viewers how physical barriers to mating either cause extinction or speciation

Cons

• None

Common Core

SL.9-10.2