Eco/Evolution Project: Research Notes for Ancestral Organism
Geologic time(s) this organism lived: |
Environment: What type of biome does your ancestral organism live in? Describe the climatic and geographic range for your organism. Maps could be useful visual aids. |
Ecology: What is your organism’s niche? What significant relationships did the organism have with other organisms and their environment? Try to establish a food chain for your organism; if information is lacking identify your organism’s trophic level. This information may be spotty; try to find the dominant plants and dominant animals for your organism’s geologic time. |
Morphology: What are the basic structures that make up the organisms body and appearance? |
Survival traits: What adaptations were necessary for this organism to be successful in its environment? Why the adaptations occur? What evolutionary concepts? |
Species: Name:
Eco/Evolution Project: Research Notes for Modern Organism
Environment: What type of biome does your modern organism live in? Describe the climatic and geographic range for your organism. Maps could be useful visual aids. |
Ecology: What is your organism’s niche? What significant relationships did the organism have with other organisms and their environment? Establish a food chain for your organism. What are the dominant plants and dominant animals for your organism’s biome? |
Morphology: What are the basic structures that make up the organisms body and appearance? |
Survival traits: What adaptations were necessary for this organism to be successful in its environment? How are Human activities influencing this species? Why the adaptations occur? What evolutionary concepts? |
Species: Name:
Eco/Evolution Project: Research Notes for Future Organism
Millions of years from now (consider the evolutionary trends your organism has been following from ancestral to modern; predict what selective pressures and adaptations will occur for the future descendent sp.) |
Environment: What type of biome does your future organism live in? Research how Human activities are expected to alter the environment in a worst case scenario. Teacher will provide some basic suggestion on how biomes might be changed and maps. |
Ecology: What is your organism’s niche? What significant relationships did the organism have with other organisms and their environment? Establish a food chain for your organism. What are the dominant plants and dominant animals for your organism’s biome? Assume mass extinctions wiped out most modern plants and animals; you do not need to predict the specific biology/ecology of future plants& animals. With your group just make generalizations about future plants or animals that fill the niches of the extinct modern organisms. |
Morphology: What are the basic structures that make up the organisms body and appearance? |
Survival traits: What adaptations were necessary for this organism to be successful in its environment? (refer to the Intro hand out has some details, I have more detailed information once you have determined your biome) For this project we are assuming mass extinctions Why the adaptations occur? What evolutionary concepts? |
Ecology/Evolution Project v.7 ‘12 Due tuesday march 20th
Project Description: Students will pick an ancestral organism and a modern descendant organism from the provided list. Students will need to conduct research on a modern descendent of the ancestral organism and its modern ecology. Students will also conduct research on the ancestral organism and the limited fossil evidence for the ecology of the ancestral organism and the geologic period(s) it lived in. Objectives:
1. Taxonomy of organisms (past, present, and future) use complete taxonomic information you research for the modern species and its ancestor. The future species taxonomy will be the same as the modern EXCEPT the scientific name will be chosen by the student using naming schemes that the teacher will provide. 2. Identify the organism’s ecology (past, present, and future) including:
a. biome, habitat, niche, predator/prey relations, trophism, food chain and any important interactions with other organisms
b. interactions with members of the same species (mates, solo/herds, migrations and offspring number/tending)
3. Identify the major environmental selective pressures (climate change, plate drift, natural/human caused disaster, waste, Human artifacts) to which your creature has responded to in the past-modern & modern-future examples.
4. Describe changes (adaptations) in your organism’s morphology and behavior for the species to be successful at each age? Part of this project is fantasy, but the best scores will be based on evidence and a sound understanding of evolutionary principles. Evolution is about small changes over vast time periods. I’m not impressed by flying penguins that shoot lasers from their eyes as an example of a future penguin.
5. Description of the mechanisms/principles of evolution related to you future organism.
a. Gradualism vs. Punctuated Equilibrium, natural selection, method of speciation, convergence/divergence, coevolution…
6. Student produced illustrations of organism (past, present, and future)
7. Present your future species, research and predictions with a visual aid (biology exhibition) Final Product:
Poster board, models, technology, …? Whatever suits you best; we have a limited time and computer access for completion of this project make choices that suit the amount of time you can devote outside of class in addition to the time given in class! In your small group you will present on the future biomes and future ecology. Individually you will present the evolutionary changes that give rise to your future organism. All grades will be individual. A WCP following Golden Page format required for all research. Things to consider for the future:
-Future biomes: will be greatly altered by some Human activities and MANY natural phenomena. For example, runaway climate change may lead to human extinction but global temperatures will return to normal after thousands of years. Asphalt, steel, concrete and nuclear waste might be around much longer!
-Morphology: size, color, patterns, appendages, trophism, defense mechanisms…
-Behavior: migration, mating practices, raising young, loner, herding, nocturnalism…
-Relationships: prey, predators, reproduction, competition, shelter/nest materials… List of ancient species/group of modern organisms (each member of a group must have a different modern species): ie I choose Pseudaelurus-cougar, another student chooses Pseudaelurus-house cat and another student Pseudaelurus-lynx. We may share the ancestral species research, but our modern and future species research is completely independent.
In small groups students that share similar biomes/geographic ranges will research, discuss and predict a worst case environmental scenario as a result of Human impact on the biosphere. Based on research and creative minds the groups will locate and describe the future biomes of Earth and the selective pressures that their modern species would adapt to for survival in these future biomes.
All throughout the project you will use the basic principles of evolution /ecology to show how organisms on Earth might have evolved into modern species and ultimately predict how Humans may be a driving selective evolutionary force for future life on Earth.
| › Your modern organism can not be endangered, threatened or rare! It must be common in its habitat. Elephants are the only exception to this rule. Ancestral species/ Ancestral Family | Modern Family (common name) |
| Eurypterus/Eurypteridae | arachnids |
| Pseudaelurus/Felidae | felines |
| Cotylosaurs/Captorhinidae | Lizards/snakes |
| Archaeopteryx/ Archaeopterygidae | birds |
| Primelephas/ Elephantidae | elephants (2 students max.) |
| Hyracotherium/Paleotheriidae | horses (3 students max.) |
| Hybodus/ Hybodontidae | sharks |
| Cynodictis/Amphicyonidae | canines |
| Australopithecus/ Hominidae | human (one student) |
| Cheirolepis/ Cheirolepidae | ray finned fish |
| Eryops/Temnospondyli (-ls) | amphibians |
| Ambulocetus/ Ambulocetidae | whales |
No comments:
Post a Comment