Normally when two species look similar, they are closely related. However, this doesn't seem to apply to the Triassic animals. Learn why these familiar looking animals are not actually related to today's animals. Viewers come to understand the role of adaptive radiation and convergent evolution in the changing landscape of our planet in an installment of the PBS Eons series.

Concepts

pangaea, dinosaurs, animals, evolution, mass extinction

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Add new vocabulary to science journals

Classroom Considerations

• Relies on prior knowledge of extinctions, the Triassic period, and evolution
• The last minute of the video is an advertisement and not content

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• Works well in traditional or flipped classroom settings
  
• Includes subtitles for the hearing impaired
• Shares many paintings and animations of these prehistoric animals

Cons

• None

Common Core

SL.6.2 SL.7.2 SL.8.2 SL.9-10.2 SL.11-12.2 RST.6-8.4 RST.9-10.4 RST.11-12.4