Description
Directions
- Go to the Biodiversity and Evolutionary Trees: An Activity on Biological Classification Links to an external site. and work through the activity sorting sea shells based on morphological characteristics to study evolutionary relationships.
- Please take notes, describing each step of identifying and selecting snails as you work through the activity. Please take a screen shot of the final drawing showing the evolutionary relationship of all snails listed and answer the following questions:
- Why was the scallop among the snails? (HINT: Watch “Dr. Olivera discusses major molluscan groups [Duration 04:25]Links to an external site.“)
- What additional tests could be used to examine evolutionary relationships among molluscs (snail species)? (HINT: Watch “Dr. Olivera discusses how to classify shells [Duration 03:26]Links to an external site.“)
- How was the name of different cone snail species decided? (HINT: Watch the video “Dr. Olivera discusses species names [Duration 02:02]Links to an external site.“)
- Where are cone snails found and what are their feeding habits? (HINT: Click on snail images on the final evolutionary tree for more information about species Links to an external site).
- Describe the evolutionary history of snails (Molluscs). In which eon, era and period did the first snails evolve?
