GENERAL BIOLOGY 2 (MIDTERM)
LEARNING ACTIVITY #4 Evidence of Evolution
NAME: ______________________________ SECTION: ________________________
A. Comparative Anatomy
TASK 1: Compare the anatomy of the butterfly and bird wing below.
1. What is the function of each of these structures (Bat Wings, Bird Wings, Insect Wings)?
2. How are they different in form? Give specific differences.
3. Does this suggest an evolutionary relationship? Explain how these analogous structures can be
used as evidence of a common ancestor between each of these organisms.
TASK 2: Compare the overall body structure of
the cave fish and the minnow.
1. What is the biggest, most obvious difference between the body structure of these two fish?
2. Assume the two fish came from the same original ancestor. Why might the cave fish have
evolved without eyesight?
3. What kind of sensory adaptation would you hypothesize the cave fish has to allow it to navigate
in a cave, including catching and eating food?
TASK 3: Below are some vestigial structures found in humans. For each, hypothesize what its
function may have been.
How are vestigial structures an example of evidence of evolution?
TASK 4: Shown below are images of the skeletal structure of the front limbs of 4 animals: human,
whale, cat and bat. Each animal has a similar set of bones shown by the color.
For each animal, indicate what function each limb is responsible for.
TASK 5: Compare the skeletal structure of each limb to the human arm. Relate the differences you
see in the form to the differences in function.
Homologous structures show individual variations on a common anatomical theme. These are seen in
organisms that are closely related.
1. Give another example of a homologous structure aside from this activity.
2. Does this suggest an evolutionary relationship? Explain how these homologous structures can be
used as evidence of a common ancestor between each of these four organisms.
B. Fossils
TASK 1: SEARCH THE INTERNET FOR THE IMAGE OF THE ORGANISMS INDICATED
BELOW. PASTE YOUR SEARCHED IMAGE IN THE SPACE PROVIDED.
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FOSSIL OF SKULL AND FRONT FOSSIL OF SKULL AND FRONT
LEG OF EOHIPPUS (DAWN HORSE) LEG OF MESOHIPPUS
FOSSIL OF SKULL AND FRONT FOSSIL OF SKULL AND FRONT
LEG OF MERYCHIPPUS LEG OF PILOHIPPUS
FOSSIL OF SKULL AND FRONT
TASK 2: ANSWER THE FOLLOWING LEG OF EQUUS GUIDE QUESTIONS
(MODERN HORSE)
1. Observe the images that you collected. What similarities can you observe from the Fossils that might
lead to the conclusion that these are all related species.
2. What is the biggest change in skull anatomy that occurred from the dawn horse to the modern horse?
3. What is the biggest change in leg anatomy that occurred from the dawn horse to the modern horse?
4. Does this suggest an evolutionary relationship? Explain how these fossils can be used as evidence of
a common ancestor between the organisms.
C. Embryology
TASK 1: Organisms that are closely related may also have physical similarities before they are even
born. Observe the Embryo of the six different organisms below.
Hypothesize which embryo is from each of the following organisms. It is OK if you find this challenging.
Please don’t try and google the answer. Instead, just briefly explain the thinking behind your hypothesis.
TASK 2: These are older, more developed embryos from the same organisms. Hypothesize which
embryo is from each of the following organisms. It is OK if you find this challenging. Please don’t
try and google the answer. Instead, just briefly explain the thinking behind Chicken your
hypothesis.
TASK 3: These are embryos at their most advanced stage, shortly before birth.
1. Look
again at the six embryos in their earliest stages. Describe the patterns you see. What physical similarities
exist between each of the embryos?
2. Does this suggest an evolutionary relationship? Explain how these embryos can be used as evidence of
a common ancestor between each of these six organisms.
D. Embryology
Cytochrome c is a protein found in mitochondria. It is used in the study of evolutionary relationships
because most animals have this protein. Cytochrome c is made of 104 amino acids joined together. Below
is a list of the amino acids in part of a cytochrome protein molecule for 9 different animals. Any
sequences the same for all animals have been skipped.
For each non-human animal, mark any amino acids that are different from the human sequence. When
you finish, record how many differences you found in the table on the next
1. Based on the Cytochrome C data, which organism is most closely related to humans?
2. Do any of the organisms have the same number of differences from human Cytochrome C? In
situations like this, how would you decide which is more closely related to humans?
3. Does this suggest an evolutionary relationship? Explain how these molecular biology data can be used
as evidence of a common ancestor between each of these organisms.
