What’s That?
WARNING: ENGINE FAILURE!
While on a routine flight across the world, your plane’s engine failed and
your plane spiraled out of control. You remained calm and managed to parachute
from the plane just before it crashed in a fiery ball of destruction. You have no
idea where you are, but you are excited to observe your surroundings. After
weeks of exploring, you find an organism that scientists have never seen before.
Since you are one of Mr. Beckerman’s master biologists, and therefore an expert
on evolution, you set out to classify this previously unknown species.
Three years after your crash, Mr. Beckerman finds and rescues you on his
summer vacation! National Geographic hears about your amazing observation
and offers you $50,000 to create an article about your new critter. You decide to
take them up on their offer and they send you the guidelines for the project.
Their letter is attached.
Good Luck!
Mr. Beckerman
National Geographic Society
1145 17th Street N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036-4688
February 13, 2012
Hello, survivor.
We are willing to pay you $50,000 for the completion of your article.
GUIDELINES:
Diagram (pages 1 and 2)
A. Landscape: What is the scenery like in this environment? Decorate your cover page to match
the scenery of your habitat. This will be the first page of your submission.
B. Organism: Describe your organism by drawing it. Label at least 3 features that allow it to
survive in its environment (increase its evolutionary fitness). Two of these features or
adaptations should be similar to known organisms while the third should be unique to this
organism. The diagram of your organism will be the second page of your submission.
Explanation (pages 3 – 4; 5 if necessary)
A. Introduce your organism: Write a paragraph in which you explain where your organism was
found. One of the most exciting parts of discovering a new organism is that you get to name
it! Give your organism a common name (example: tiger) and a scientific name (a two word
name written in italics with the first word capitalized; example: Panthera tigris). You can use
“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_and_Greek_words_commonly_used_in_systemat
ic_names” to help you come up with a scientific name.
B. Similarities to other organisms: Write a paragraph about the similarities that exist between
your organism and known organisms. Based on these similarities, do you think that fossils
would show your organism evolved recently from other organisms or has it been its own
species for a long time? Be sure to include the term homologous structures in your
description.
C. New adaptation: Write two paragraphs about the unique feature of your organism. In the first
paragraph, describe a change in the environment that may have resulted in the evolution of the
third feature. Be sure to explain how this new feature affected the evolutionary fitness of the
organism in its new environment. In the second paragraph, explain how the evolution of this
third adaptation led to speciation. In these paragraphs, be sure to include the terms natural
selection, evolutionary fitness, speciation, and reproductive isolation.
Your completed article is due to our publishing office on Wednesday February 22, 2012. You may type it
or write it by hand. You must work independently on your article. You may give it to Mr. Beckerman
during class on that day and he will deliver it directly to our offices on your behalf.
Sincerely,
The National Geographic Society
Founded in 1888 to "increase and diffuse geographic knowledge,"
the National Geographic Society works to inspire people to care about the planet.