As you go through the activity, jot down notes for the following questions, which are organized according to the three themes of the activity's timeline:
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Transformations |
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| How does fossil evidence demonstrate that species have changed over time? |
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| What are some of the major transformations in the evolution of life? |
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| What kinds of fossils would you expect to find in the Cambrian strata of rocks such as the Burgess Shale? |
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| What could account for the Cambrian explosion? |
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| Why is it difficult to demonstrate the slow change of one species into another using the fossil record? |
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| What kinds of fossils are more likely to show transitions between species and groups? Why? |
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| What fossil examples of this transition have been discovered? |
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Extinction |
| When did mass extinctions occur, and what organisms were affected? |
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| What is the significance of extinction for the evolution of existing organisms? |
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Geology |
| How did the continents change from the Precambrian to the Permian to the Jurassic to the Eocene? |
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| How could the shifting of continents have influenced the distribution and migration of plants and animals? |
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