Fossils
Things that can help us learn about species that went extinct a long time ago.
What are fossils?
When organisms are descended from a single ancestor.
What is common ancestry?
Whales evolved from an ancient animal that had this many legs.
What is four?
The name of the largest bone in a human's body. (Hint: it is in the leg.)
What is the femur?
Fossils that are buried deeper in the ground tend to be THIS, compared to fossils that are buried toward the surface of the ground.
What is older?
The study of the structures of organisms and their parts.
What is anatomy?
Modern horses have a hoof on each leg. The ancient ancestors of horses used to have THIS on each leg.
What are multiple (3-4) toes?
The quality or state of having many different forms, types, ideas, etc.
What is diversity?
If the fossil of a seashell was found on the side of a mountain, the location used to be THIS.
What is underwater?
The sequence of heritable changes that occurred among species since the origin of life on Earth.
What is evolutionary history?
Ancient ancestors of whales, like the Pakicetus, lived here.
What is on land?
The ancestor from which all species of dogs evolved.
What is the wolf?
If the fossil of an insect trapped in tree sap was found under the ocean floor, the location used to be THIS.
What is a forest?
To change the frequencies of alleles in a population over time.
What is evolve?
Because we are both mammals, whales use these for breathing, just like humans.
What are lungs?
The permanent disappearance of a species from Earth.
What is extinction?
Fossils can provide evidence that some environments and organisms on Earth have done THIS over time.
What is changed greatly?
Similar structures in the anatomy of two different species with common ancestors.
What are homologous structures? (or anatomical homologies)
Since the bones in a whale's front flipper are very similar to the bones in a human arm, a whale flipper and a human arm are called THIS.
What are homologous structures?
The arrangement of things in the order that they occurred.
What is chronological order?