Nova Labs

Directions
Evolution Lab: What could you possibly have in common with a mushroom, or a dinosaur, or even a bacterium? More than you might think. In this Lab, you’ll puzzle out the evolutionary relationships linking together a spectacular array of species. Explore the tree of life and get a front row seat to what some have called the greatest show on Earth. That show is evolution.

Link: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/lab/evolution/

Click "Play Game" to get started. You will use a guest pass, which means your progress will NOT be saved. There are 6 missions in this game. You need to complete ALL of the missions.

Mission 1: Training trees

Even the most basic evolutionary trees reveal deep insights into how different forms of life are connected.

Red, Green and Gecko Level. Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question. The screenshot will include a Palm Tree, Gecko, and Fly Agaric.

Now that you’ve completed the first puzzle, answer the question: Is an animal or a plant more closely related to a fungus?

Familiar Faces Level. Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question. The screenshot will include goldfish, stick figure, kingsnake, and dog.

The animals in this puzzle look very different but they all have one thing in common. What trait is that?

Tree of life: Vegetarian edition Level. Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question. The screenshot will include seaweed, onion, banana, lemon, and radish.

Is a banana more closely related to a lemon or an onion?

MISSION 2 
Fossils: Rocking the Earth

Use fossils, clues buried inside of rocks, to unlock the history of life on our planet.

Eating dinosaurs for dinner Level.
You may have eaten a dinosaur last night without even realizing it! Complete this puzzle to find out for sure.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question. The screenshot will include: chicken, ostrich, T-rex, archaeopteryx, albertosaurous.

After solving the puzzle, answer the question: Do birds have anything in common with dinosaurs?

Level: One small step About 380 million years ago, life transitioned from occupying the water exclusively to living on land. Which traits helped make this crucial shift possible?

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

According to the tree you just built, what is the first trait that helped aquatic species evolve into creatures that live on land?

Level: Origin of whales
What traits can you spot in modern whales that show how they evolved from land animals?

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Which of the following species does not have tail flukes?

MISSION 3: DNA Spells Evolution
The thread of DNA ties together all life on Earth. Use it to investigate how very different organisms, big and small, are related.

Level: Frog legs and fish eggs. Physical traits aren’t the only way to build phylogenetic trees. You can also use DNA to determine how species are related.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

The DNA sequence of the West Indian Ocean coelacanth is closest to which species?

Level: One fish, two fish, red fish, lungfish. Let’s build on the last puzzle. Scientists once thought coelacanths were the closest living relative of four-footed animals. But not anymore. Which species has that honor now?

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

In 2013, scientists found that coelacanths are not the closest relative of four-footed amphibians and other animals. Which species is?

Level: Where the tiny wild things are.
Some of nature’s most striking solutions to extreme environments are easy to overlook. Zoom in and explore the microscopic realm of the single-celled Archaea and bacteria.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put it in the show your work question.

You built this tree using only DNA information. Why was examining DNA better than considering physical traits?

MISSION 4
Biogeography: Where Life Lives
How is it that certain species wound up living where they do?

Level: Saving Hawaiian treasure.
The evolution of honeycreepers mirrors the evolution of their native Hawaii. Keep your eyes on how the beaks and diets of these birds changed as new islands emerged.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put it in the show your work question.

Look at the way honeycreepers evolved. If a new species of honeycreeper were discovered, and it had a short, straight beak, which bird in this puzzle would likely be its closest living relative?

Level: Cone rangers Between 100 and 300 million years ago, there was a southern hemisphere land mass called Gondwana. Figure out how conifers traveled across the world as continents split apart.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Thanks to DNA testing, scientists have discovered that a tree in South America is genetically similar to one in Australia. What is one possible evolutionary inference they could make from this discovery?

Level: Kangas, gliders, and snakes, oh my!
Similar environmental constraints can lead organisms to evolve similar adaptations. See how this phenomenon, called convergent evolution, has played out among mammals.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Despite living oceans apart, the North American kangaroo rat and the Australian hopping mouse look similar. Both are nocturnal and burrow underground. What can you infer?

MISSION 5: Tree of Life and Death
Phylogenetic trees can tell us where medical problems come from, and how to fight them.

Level: Hosting blood flukes for dinner As species evolve, so do the things that live inside them. Take blood flukes—a collection of flatworm parasites that infect blood and rely completely on their hosts for life support. Their evolution has been intimately tied to their hosts.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

If blood flukes were to exhibit strict cophyly over millions of years, you would predict that blood flukes would:

Level: Fatal fangs
Tyler has been bitten by an unknown—and potentially deadly—Australian snake! Solve this puzzle to determine which antivenom will save him.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Which antivenom will save Tyler?

Level: Dawn of a modern pandemic
Find out which of the great apes passed a virus onto humans that led to the deadly AIDS outbreak.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Which ape virus is most closely related to the HIV virus that has killed about 39 million people due to AIDS?

MISSION 6: You Evolved Too
Go find out who your relatives are here on Earth. Hint: They’ve never come to your family reunion.

Level: Planet of the apes
Are you more like a chimp, an orangutan, or a gorilla?

Based on this tree, who is your closest living relative?

Level: Back to skull
Scientists don’t need full skeletons to make inferences about how species evolved. Use clues from skulls to trace how modern-day humans came to be.

Which of the following can be inferred from the tree:

Level: Inside out of Africa
Clues hidden within our genes reveal that Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa to almost every corner of the world. And then, thousands of years later, some returned to Africa.

With which archaic human species did some of the ancestors of modern Europeans interbreed during the past 100,000 years?

Red, Green and Gecko Level. Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question. The screenshot will include a Palm Tree, Gecko, and Fly Agaric.

Now that you’ve completed the first puzzle, answer the question: Is an animal or a plant more closely related to a fungus?

Familiar Faces Level. Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question. The screenshot will include goldfish, stick figure, kingsnake, and dog.

The animals in this puzzle look very different but they all have one thing in common. What trait is that?

Tree of life: Vegetarian edition Level. Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question. The screenshot will include seaweed, onion, banana, lemon, and radish.

Is a banana more closely related to a lemon or an onion?

After solving the puzzle, answer the question: Do birds have anything in common with dinosaurs?

Level: One small step About 380 million years ago, life transitioned from occupying the water exclusively to living on land. Which traits helped make this crucial shift possible?Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

According to the tree you just built, what is the first trait that helped aquatic species evolve into creatures that live on land?

Level: Origin of whalesWhat traits can you spot in modern whales that show how they evolved from land animals?Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Level: Origin of whales

Which of the following species does not have tail flukes?

Level: Frog legs and fish eggs. Physical traits aren’t the only way to build phylogenetic trees. You can also use DNA to determine how species are related.Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

The DNA sequence of the West Indian Ocean coelacanth is closest to which species?

In 2013, scientists found that coelacanths are not the closest relative of four-footed amphibians and other animals. Which species is?

Level: Where the tiny wild things are.

You built this tree using only DNA information. Why was examining DNA better than considering physical traits?

Level: Saving Hawaiian treasure.The evolution of honeycreepers mirrors the evolution of their native Hawaii. Keep your eyes on how the beaks and diets of these birds changed as new islands emerged.Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put it in the show your work question.

Look at the way honeycreepers evolved. If a new species of honeycreeper were discovered, and it had a short, straight beak, which bird in this puzzle would likely be its closest living relative?

Level: Cone rangers Between 100 and 300 million years ago, there was a southern hemisphere land mass called Gondwana. Figure out how conifers traveled across the world as continents split apart.Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Thanks to DNA testing, scientists have discovered that a tree in South America is genetically similar to one in Australia. What is one possible evolutionary inference they could make from this discovery?

Level: Kangas, gliders, and snakes, oh my!Similar environmental constraints can lead organisms to evolve similar adaptations. See how this phenomenon, called convergent evolution, has played out among mammals.Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Despite living oceans apart, the North American kangaroo rat and the Australian hopping mouse look similar. Both are nocturnal and burrow underground. What can you infer?

If blood flukes were to exhibit strict cophyly over millions of years, you would predict that blood flukes would:

Level: Fatal fangsTyler has been bitten by an unknown—and potentially deadly—Australian snake! Solve this puzzle to determine which antivenom will save him.Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Which antivenom will save Tyler?

Level: Dawn of a modern pandemicFind out which of the great apes passed a virus onto humans that led to the deadly AIDS outbreak.Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Level: Dawn of a modern pandemic

Which ape virus is most closely related to the HIV virus that has killed about 39 million people due to AIDS?

Level: Planet of the apesAre you more like a chimp, an orangutan, or a gorilla?

Based on this tree, who is your closest living relative?

Level: Back to skullScientists don’t need full skeletons to make inferences about how species evolved. Use clues from skulls to trace how modern-day humans came to be.

Which of the following can be inferred from the tree:

Level: Inside out of AfricaClues hidden within our genes reveal that Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa to almost every corner of the world. And then, thousands of years later, some returned to Africa.

With which archaic human species did some of the ancestors of modern Europeans interbreed during the past 100,000 years?

Level: One small step About 380 million years ago, life transitioned from occupying the water exclusively to living on land. Which traits helped make this crucial shift possible?

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Level: Origin of whales
What traits can you spot in modern whales that show how they evolved from land animals?

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Level: Frog legs and fish eggs. Physical traits aren’t the only way to build phylogenetic trees. You can also use DNA to determine how species are related.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Level: Saving Hawaiian treasure.
The evolution of honeycreepers mirrors the evolution of their native Hawaii. Keep your eyes on how the beaks and diets of these birds changed as new islands emerged.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put it in the show your work question.

Level: Cone rangers Between 100 and 300 million years ago, there was a southern hemisphere land mass called Gondwana. Figure out how conifers traveled across the world as continents split apart.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Level: Fatal fangs
Tyler has been bitten by an unknown—and potentially deadly—Australian snake! Solve this puzzle to determine which antivenom will save him.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Level: Dawn of a modern pandemic
Find out which of the great apes passed a virus onto humans that led to the deadly AIDS outbreak.

Screenshot a picture of your completed cladogram and put in the show your work question.

Level: Planet of the apes
Are you more like a chimp, an orangutan, or a gorilla?

Level: Back to skull
Scientists don’t need full skeletons to make inferences about how species evolved. Use clues from skulls to trace how modern-day humans came to be.

Level: Inside out of Africa
Clues hidden within our genes reveal that Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa to almost every corner of the world. And then, thousands of years later, some returned to Africa.