Daddio: 5/10/11 Blog of the Day

Where do we come from?  You have learned enough about evolution to know that humans didn't really evolve from chimps like the one in the picture above.  Instead humans and chimpanzees both evolved from the same common ancestor that lived 7-8 million years ago-- known only as the CHLCA (Chimpanzee-Human-Last-Common-Ancestor.

For today's blog post, I want you to pick a type of animal-- any animal that is currently alive (no extinct animals) and research what types of animals it evolved from.  For example (and you obviously can't use this example for your own post), the kangaroo evolved from a creature known as a Nambaroo gillespieae:

For your post, I want you to: (1) provide the animal you chose to research; (2) an ancestor that the animal evolved from; and (3) information about the ancestor- like what environment it lived it, how long ago it lived on earth, and how it was both the same and different from the animal that evolved from it.

Kangaroo

Nambaroo

So, in my example above, I would post:

I chose to research the kangaroo, and learned that it evolved from a nambaroo gillespieae.  The nambaroo lived in Australia nearly 25 million years ago and lived in dense forest. Scientists think it ate mostly a diet of fallen fruit and fungi from the forest floor. Modern kangaroos eat most shoots and leaves from shrubs and grass.  Unlike kangaroos, the nambaroo were only the size of a small dog, had canine fangs and ran around on all fours.  Kangaroos are much larger and primarily move around using only their back legs.  Like modern kangaroos, though, the nambaroo had strong paws and were active climbers of trees.

If you need help researching your animal, go to google and search for "[your animal] evolution" and see what you can find out.