Phylogenetics Scavenger Hunt
_____
Visit the following Web site, or click on it through my website under “7 th Grade Links.”
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/Trex/phyframe1.html
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As you navigate through the website, keep your eyes open for answers to the following questions.
Hint: The questions are in order of appearance.
Folder 1: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/Trex/phyframe1.html
1. Eukaryota include the organisms that people are most familiar with — _________________, ___________,
_______________, and ________________. They have a cell structure that includes a nucleus and other
organelles. They can be single-celled or multi-celled.
2. Archaea are very unusual microscopic, _______________-celled organisms. They are able to survive in
extreme environments, including deep-sea vents with temperatures well over 100 degrees Celsius, and
highly alkaline, salty, or acidic waters.
3. Bacteria are ______________-celled organisms that have been around for more than 3.5 billion years.
Bacteria can be found almost everywhere, from the base of your eyelashes to the deep layers of the Earth.
4. All life is related and can be traced back through lineages to a ___________________ ________________.
5. Resemblances to the "older ancestors" generally fade as the number of _____________________ increases.
6. We can trace the history of life back ______________________ years to the point where all life shared a
common ancestor.
7. Lineage might have been a new term for you. Which is the best definition for lineage?
a) A single line showing age.
b) A continuous line of descent.
c) A set of parallel lines.
8. Within this folder, you compared the history of a single family to the history of all life. What are some
things that they have in common?
a) Both have a point of common ancestry.
b) In both, descendants inherit features from previous ancestors.
c) In both, descendants more closely resemble their recent ancestors than more distant ancestors.
d) All of the above.
e) None of the above.
Folder 2: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/Trex/phyframe2.html
9. All of the animals, including the caiman and the parrot, are members of certain lineages, represented by the
_____________ on the diagram.
10. By following the lineages back to where they ______________________ you find their point of common
ancestry.
11. Given any three organisms, those two that share the most recent ___________________ ______________
are more closely related to each other than either is to the third.
p. 78
12. Draw a CIRCLE around the dot that represents the most recent common ancestor for
A and C.
13. Draw a SQUARE around the dot that represents the most recent common ancestor for
B and C.
Folder 3: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/Trex/phyframe3.html
14. Which is more closely related to caimans—hares or parrots?
a) Hares
b) Parrots.
15. Circle the dot that represents the common ancestor to the hare, caiman, and
parrot.
16. Cladograms represent hypotheses about ___________________________
relationships—who is more closely related to whom.
17. Frogs, humans, hares, caimans, and parrots all have four limbs. They are called ___________________.
18. Which feature do humans, hares, caimans, and parrots share that the other three lineages did not inherit?
a) Bony skeleton
b) Hair
c) Amniotic egg
19. The _______________ is among the vertebrates that have no skull openings other than those for the eyes
and nostrils.
20. Which of the tetrapods have the opening on either side of the skull?
a) Hare and crocodile
b) Frog and hare
c) Bird and crocodile
Folder 4: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/explorations/tours/Trex/phyframe4.html
21. What would you write in the table for T. rex having vertebrae?
a) + (T. rex has vertebrae)
b) 0 (T. rex does not have vertebrae)
c) ? (we don't know if T. rex has vertebrae or not)
22. Did T. rex have a bony skeleton? What would you write in the table for T. rex?
a) +
b) 0
c) ?
23. Does T. rex have four limbs? How would you mark the table
a) +
b) 0
c) ?
24. Did T. rex inherit an amniotic egg? What would you write in the table?
a) +
b) 0
c) ?
25. Did T. rex have hair like humans and hares? What would you write in the table?
a) +
b) 0
c) ?
26. Did T. rex have a skull opening in front of the eye or not? What would you write in the table?
a) +
b) 0
c) ?
27. Can the feature hair tell us anything?
a) Yes
b) No
28. What if we look at the skull opening in front of the eye — can we narrow down our search to two vertebrate
lineages that might be most closely related to T. rex?
a) No, this feature does not help
b) Yes, the human and hare lineages
c) Yes, the caiman and parrot lineages
29. Does T. rex have a knob on its heel bone?
a) Yes
b) No
c) We can't tell
30. Was T. rex bipedal like parrots, or quadrupedal like caimans?
a) Bipedal
b) Quadrupedal
c) We can't tell
31. Which of these conditions did T. rex inherit?
a) All five fingers intact
b) Loss of the fourth and fifth finger
c) We can't tell
32. Based on the features we have examined, who can we hypothesize that T. rex is most closely related to?
a) Parrots
b) Caimans
33. What did T. rex taste like?
a) Chicken
b) Roast beef
b) Tuna
34. What evidence did we use to determine that T. rex tasted like chicken?
a) T. rex's heel bone does not have a bump
b) T. rex is bipedal
c) T. rex has a reduced number of fingers
d) a and b
e) b and c
35. Because T. rex was bipedal and had a reduced number of fingers, we can infer:
a) that T. rex was more closely related to birds than to crocodiles
b) that T. rex and birds inherited these features from a common ancestor
c) that T. rex probably shares more features with birds than with other vertebrates
d) all of the above
e) none of the above