Great Transitions worksheet-1

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Portland State University *

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Anthropology

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Apr 3, 2024

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Name: Ashleigh barto Great Transitions- The Origin of Tetrapods 1. Before viewing the film: Give a definition of the word, tetrapod. A tetrapod is a four-legged vertebrate. 2. What was the prediction (about fossils’contribution) that Darwin made about evolution? He predicted that each kind of animal evolved from pre-existing animals that lacked those structures which was seen with fossils that were buried in the Earth ’ s crust. 3. Name the paleontologist who narrates this film. His name is Neil Shubin. 4. Describe the common architecture of tetrapod limbs. What is the fundamental pattern? Tetrapods have limbs with digits and numerous bones in each limb. The fundamental pattern is that they all have four limbs. 5. What other defining feature do all vertebrates share? They all share a backbone. 6. How do you “go back in time” in the fossil record of rocks? You follow the pattern from most recent to most ancient- birds to mammals to reptiles to amphibians to fish. 7. How do we use embryology to study evolution? What other evidence shows that tetrapods came from fish? They use it to compare the shape of the embryo and the DNA of each embryo. The transitional fossils also suggested that tetrapods came from fish . 8. If you are looking for transitional fossils, what are the two things you have to take into account about the rocks? You have to take into account the origin and the type of rocks most likely to hold fossils. 9. Which are the five conditions that have to be met in order to obtain a fossil? It has to be in the right kind of setting where sediments form, it has to be buried before the remains can be tampered with by weather, decay, or scavengers, then the dirt and mud burying it has to harden to protect it for many years, next erosion has to bring the remains to the surface, and lastly people have to wander by to find it. 10. What age of rocks hold fossils that are transitional between fish and tetrapods? The age was approximately 375 mya. 11. What attracted the paleontologists in the film to the Canadian Arctic? The land held three areas of Devonian rock that could hold fossils of fish moving onto land. 12. Describe the ancient environment that allowed fish to live in what is today’s Arctic. The environment was warm and watery with many banks that shrunk to different sizes. The environment was perfect for sustaining life. 13. What was the major discovery fossil in the third field season? The majority of Tiktaalik, a large freshwater fish. 14. Which qualities of Tiktaalik (the fish-like creature found) made it so important?

It has scales, fins, a flat head with eyes on top, huge interlocking ribs that suggest it had lungs, hip bones, and a neck. 15. Describe the transition between fish and tetrapods. Was it abrupt or gradual? The transition was gradual and other specimens were more fish-like than the Tiktaalik and others that were more tetrapod-like than the Tiktaalik. This transition happened over about 15 million years. After viewing the film, there is a follow-up exercise to do. Go to the Great Transitions Interactive exercise at: https://www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/exploring- transitional-fossils Fill in the following chart with the information from the interactive: Name of animal Scales/gills Lungs/humerus wrist, pelvis, ribcage, neck number of digits flat head? Eusthenopteron yes yes no 0 no Panderichthys yes yes no 0 yes Tiktaalik yes yes yes 0 yes Acanthostega yes yes yes 8 yes Ichthyostega yes yes yes 7 yes Tulerpeton no yes yes 6 yes Pederpes no yes yes 6/5 no Coelacanth yes yes no 0 no 1. At which point (name the animal) do the animals develop tetrapod features (wrist, pelvis, etc)? They started to develop fish and tetrapod features at Eusthenopteron, but the first solely tetrapod feature was a flathead with Panderichthys. 2. At which point do they lose fishlike features of scales and gills? They lose them at Tulerpeton but gain them back at Coelacanth. 3. How many of them share the features of both fish and tetrapods? Name them, these are the transition fossils. All of them share lungs and a humerus, which are both fish and tetrapod features. 4. Can you tell at which point a fish becomes a tetrapod? Why or why not? Yes, the Tulerpeton becomes a tetrapod because it lost its features that make it part fish. 5. Explain how transition fossils support the theory of evolution. Transition fossils give physical evidence of evolutionary change by preserving intermediate forms between ancestral and descendant species, demonstrating the steady transition of organisms over time and confirming the hypothesis of natural selection.

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