Evolution 101 Webquest
This is your first assignment in AP Biology. This webquest is an individual task and you are expected to
write the complete honor pledge after completing this webquest.
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evo_01
1. At the bottom of the Evolution 101 page, click next topic. What do we mean by the phrase, "descent
with modification"?
2. Give three examples of change that happen through time, but are not considered evolution?
3. Click "Next Topic". Read this and click "Next Topic". On the "Family Tree" page, "zoom in" on
animalia, then vertebrata. Which of the three vertebrate clades do you think we belong to?
4. Click on "back to the tree of life". Which of the three clades or "domains" do all animals belong to?
5. At the bottom of the "Family Tree" page, what new information found in the last 50 years has suggested
a change was needed in some twigs of the family tree?
6. Click on "Next topic" to read through the Phylogenies pages 1 and 2. At the bottom of the phylogenies 2
page, click explore further. What does a phylogenetic starburst usually mean?
7. Click "Next Topic". Read this page. Correct this sentence, "A rose is "more advanced" than a fern."
8. Correct this sentence, "Humans evolved from chimpanzees."
9. Click "Next Topic". Using the two trees on the "Building the tree" page, tell me if the following
animals have four limbs: a. Coelacanths, b. Non-avian dinosaurs, c. Marsupial mammals.
10. Click "Next Topic". Using the "Homologies and Analogies" page, give an example of analogous
structures.
11. Are these examples of convergent or divergent evolution? Why?
12. When can bird wings and bat wings be considered homologous structures?
13. At the bottom of the "Homologies and Analogies" page click "Explore further: recognizing
homologies".
Read through this page and click "Using Parsimony". What are post-orbital fenestrae (Use
that one at home!)? Do you have them?
14. Using the information on this page, answer the following three questions:
a. Do rodents have an amniote egg?
b. The "four-limbs" character developed between which two groups of vertebrates?
c. Based on the last diagram, it seems that a vertebrate with an amniote egg either has two post-orbital
fenestrae or what?
15. What does the principle of parsimony state?
16. At the bottom, click on "Next topic". Why are scientists changing from the Linnean classification
system to a phylogenetic system?
17. Give an example of a group of animals that fits one place according to the phylogenetic system and
another according to the Linnean system.
18. Click "Next topic" at the bottom of the page. On this tree it only shows 500 million years of life, but it
says that life has existed on earth for 3.5 billion years. What's missing from the diagram?