Peer Review

A lesson on whale evolution based on DNA, geological, paleontological, physiological and morphological evidence. Students will experience the historical discovery of fossils which increasingly link whales to earlier land-dwelling mammals. This experience reveals how scientists can make predictions about past events, based on the theory and evidence that whales evolved. Such predictions suggest the age and location of sediments where fossils of early whales would most likely be found, and even their traits. This lesson also provides confirmation, with multiple independent lines of evidence, that there IS a series of intermediate forms, showing gradual accumulation of changes, linking certain terrestrial mammal groups with modern whales.

Case Study

Individuals might use it as a case study and faculty might use it as an assignment. Elements of this lesson (such as the PowerPoint presentation) may be used by faculty separately.

Web Browser. PowerPoint. Adobe Reader. Word.

1. Students will recognize the elements of the process of science as reflected in this lesson.2. Students will recognize the role of predictions in science, and how this helped clarify whale evolution.3. Students will explain the evidence leading to a possible revision in the likely ancestors of whales4. Students will give examples of the mosaic nature of evolution in whales.5. Students will identify which whale-like traits appeared earliest, and which ones appeared later.6. Students will explain how the tectonic movement of India into Asia caused changes in the Tethys Sea, and how those changes may have contributed to the emergence of whales.

High School, College General Ed

Some basic biology, especially evolution and paleontology.