Great Transformations Part I KEY

Video (25 minutes)

1. What are some basic human needs (questions)?

Who are we? Where did we come from?

2. Compared to the age of the earth, how old are humans

(one hour clock model)?

.01 secs
3. What is puzzling concerning whales?

How did they evolve from land mammals?

4. What was unique about the fossil whale skull?

It had a “bump” on it.

5. To what did this characteristic link early whales?

Terrestrial carnivores

6. 40 mya what was the Sahara desert region like?

Shallow sea
 7. What did Basilosaurus have that modern whales lack?
legs

8. What does this indicate concerning early whales?

They were terrestrial animals

9. Aside from bones, what other evidence connects

whales to land mammals?

They swim with an up and down motion of the spine

just like land mammals do when they run.

10. How do aquatic mammals use their spines?

Terrestrial mammals?
They both move their spines up and down rather than
sideways as fish and reptiles do.

11.What did the Pennsylvanian and Greenland fossils

reveal concerning tetrapod evolution?
Legs developed first within the aquatic environment.

12. What adaptive advantage did these Devonian

tetrapod fish have over other fish?

They could get out of the water and avoid predation.

13. What was the Cambrian explosion?

When did it occur?
A great adaptive radiation of species. It occurred about
500 – 600 mya.