1. Heredity and Adaptation Teaching Slides, 1.2 part 4
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2. SCIENCE LOG Q3 WEEK 8 Thursday March 2:
In your owl-pellet, what did you discover about the limb bones in particular and what does it tell you.
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions

3. 18. Discuss dissection
In your owl-pellet, what did you discover about the limb bones in particular?
The one bone/two bones/many bones/ digits structure. Parts were missing.
If you observed the one bone/two bones/many bones/digits pattern, what does that tell you?
Modern vertebrates have the same general limb structure as ancient tetrapods. Perhaps there is a connection.
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions
Steps 15-18

4. 13. Video
Compare you original sketches and thoughts of what a transitional organism or limb might have looked like to the Tiktaalik fossil.
Is this what you expected?
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions

5. 13. Video
What evidence suggests that four-legged animals came from fish?
All are vertebrates, the embryos and DNA are similar, and the fossil record demonstrates relatedness; and there is a nice sequential relationship to the progression.
Why did Shubin and colleagues choose to look in the Canadian Arctic for transition fossils?
The age of the rock, and the kind of the rock there. Other parts of the world had been explored.
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions

6. 13. Video
Describe what the environment of the Arctic might have been like 375 million years ago.
Possibly a giant swampy flood plain.
What characteristics of Tiktaalik are fish-like?
It had scales and fins
What characteristics of Tiktaalik are tetrapod-like?
It had a flat head, eyes on the top, and tetrapod-like ribs, hip bones, and a neck.
Did the transition of vertebrates from water to land happen quickly? Explain
No. it happened gradually over millions of years. The fossil record reveals that a large amount of time passed during the transition.
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions

7. 13. video
Where does Tiktaalik fit on the time line you generated on page 61.
They lived around 375 mya, so it is positioned right between Eusthenopteron and Acanthostega
Look at question number 7 on your notebook sheet and the images of the limb structures on the teacher master I
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions

8. Compare limb anatomy Teacher master J, Comparison of Limb Anatomy
Explain why the one bone/two bones/many bones/digits limb pattern is important in explaining the origin of tetrapods?
Scientists can use the limb pattern to study change over time. The small changes seem to show transition from fish with fins living in water to tetrapods living on land.
What can you infer about how these organisms might have been related (belonging to the same group or family)?
They must have been related somehow. Maybe one was an ancestor?
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions
Step 13

9. Discuss present-day vertebrates
We’ve looked at vertebrate organisms that moved to land millions of years ago.
What about vertebrates living on land today?
Do they have the same basic limb structure as those earlier vertebrates?
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions
Step 15

10. Reading
Read “An Interview with Jennifer Clack” in FOSS Science Resources on page 11. This article is about the work of Jennifer Clack, the paleontologist you saw earlier in the video clip. Make Cornell Notes page 64 from the reading.
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions
Step 14

11. Homework
Read “An Interview with Jennifer Clack” in FOSS Science Resources on page 11.
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions
Step 14

12. Discuss the reading Compare and contrast information
Discuss these questions with a partner. Compare information from the video “Great Transitions The Origins of Tetrapods, with what you read in the text.
How did vertebrates colonize the land?
What are the transitional forms that tell us the story?
Who were the aquatic ancestors of the tetrapods?
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions

13. Discuss the reading Page 13
What are the pros and cons of this protocol?
Share what the text makes you think about.
Imagine what Dr. Clack might have felt when she examined the fossil.
What question would you have had about his animal?
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions

14. Discuss the reading page 14
Share with a partner
What ideas do you think came out of these discoveries?
What does it make you think about?
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions

15. Discuss the reading page 15
Summarize Dr. Clack’s position and the evidence that supports her claim as well as the evidence that might dispute her claim.
Reread the text to determine which statements you think are based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning and which are speculations.
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions

16. Discuss the reading page 16
Real world connections. How do scientists work in the field.
Looking at the photograph of Dr. Clack, what do you think you would enjoy about this type of work?
What would be the challenges?
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions

17. Review vocabulary
Spend a few minutes reviewing the vocabulary for this part. Update the vocabulary index and table of contents in your notebook. ADD: Transition: Change Put on the bottom of your focus question page 59
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions
Step 20

18. Answer the focus question 1.2 pg 59
What does the fossil record tell us about how life has changed over time?
Write your best response based
On the work you have done.
Include what you have learned
About how vertebrate life made
the transition from water to land.
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions
Step 21

19. Response Sheet
Notebook sheet 4, Response Sheet—Investigation 1 Work on your own to respond to the ideas presented. Put on page 66
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions
Step 22

20. Response Sheet
Notebook sheet 4, Response Sheet—Investigation 1 Should have included: The one bone/two bones/many bones/digits similarities in all the examples and relate that to the tetrapods you investigated. As tetrapod vertebrates have changed over time, their limbs have maintained a similar structure. Similar bone structure implies relatedness.
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions
Step 22

21. Compare biodiversity to the fossil record
Return to your quick write page 53
The fossil record represents the biodiversity that has existed over time, including extinct organisms.
Draw a line and answer the question again but consider only the fossil record. .
How does the fossil record help us explain why there is so much diversity of life on Earth?
You could start with:
The fossil record gives evidence such as ___ or
The fossil record helps us explain the diversity of life on Earth because _____
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions
Step 23

22. Wrap-Up: Big ideas page 67
Review your notebook entries.
Generate a list of key points (including drawings or illustrations) on page 67
This will be your study guide
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions
Step 24

23. Wrap-Up: Big ideas page 67
Should include:
The fossil record documents a sample of the diversity of organisms that lived throughout the history of life on Earth.
Paleontologists can document the age of fossils, using the principle of superposition and rock dating.
Many organisms have become extinct, leaving only fossils as evidence of their existence.
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions

24. Wrap-Up: Big ideas page 67
Should include:
The fossil record is incomplete because most organisms did not fossilize, or fossils have not yet been found.
Earth is over 4 billion years old, and life was single-celled for most of that time.
Fossils showing limb structures document the transition from water to land by vertebrates.
Because ancient and modern tetrapods have similar limb structures (one bone/two bone/many bones/digits), you can infer that they are related.
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions

25. All rights reserved. Copyright The Regents of the University of California.
Developed at Published and Distributed by
Photo credits:
Cover slide: © Africa Studio/Shutterstock
Notebook image: © photastic/Shutterstock
Heredity and Adaptation Course, 1.2: Transitions