EVOLUTION Blog 1: Fossils

Lucy

1. It is the bones of one of our earliest human ancestors

2. It lived 3.2 milliion years ago

3. It looked like a human

4. It walked upright on two legs

Hadar Skull

1. It is a skull of a primitive human species

2. It lived 3.0 million years ago

3. It looked more apelike than human, and was really old

4. The skull didn't move

Laetoli Footprints

1. Footprints of early human species

2. It lived 3.6 million years ago

3. It was an upright being, like humans, but the prints resembled a tree-dwelling chimp's foot structure

4. The walked on two feet like human beings

First Family

1. It is a collection of early human species

2. It lived 3.2 million years ago

3. The males were  much bigger than their female counterparts

4. They walked like humans with broad heels and long and more straight

Rating: ★★★
It was okay, but not exactly informative. The first page was really confusing and hard to read. This weblab was not very good, but it was sufficient, I guess.

Bird Adaptations

Ring-Necked Pheasant
-The "Fast Take-Off" Wings
-Cracking Beak
-Perching Feet



Great Blue Heron
-The "Slow, Flapping" Wing
-Striking Beak
-Wading Feet


Woodpecker
-The "High-Speed and Maneuverability" Wing
-Drilling Beak
-Climbing Feet

Bald Eagle
-The "Soaring" Wing
-Tearing Beak
-Catching-Prey Feet


White-Faced Ibis
-The "Slow, Flapping" Wing
-Probing Beak
-Wading Feet

EVOLUTION Blog 13: Sex and the Single Guppy

In this web lab, I was able to see how coloration affected predation and mating. Their eccentric colors caught the eyes of predators but also attracted mates. This was really similar to one of the other web labs having to do with genes and alleles. The population of guppies depending on the color of their skins, the environment, and the number of predators.

Rating: ★★★★★
It was really informative and interactive. I had a lot of fun. The only problem is that the words were really small and a bit hard to read but still, it was a good exercise.

EVOLUTION Blog 12: Weblab Dating

Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating technique that uses the decay of carbon-14 to estimate the age of organic materials. This technique was developed in the 1940's by Willard F. Libby and a group of scientists. When C-14 changes into N-14, the Nitrogen is in gas form and escapes. The maximum age that carbon dating is reliable is approximately 52,000 years.

Rating: ★
I didn't like it at all because it was really long and was not really informative. It was all specific to certain things and really confusing. I do not recommend to use this web lab.

EVOLUTION Blog 11: Weblab Phylogenetics

In this weblab, we explored the history of some animals and what common ancestors they had. We learned how to use cladograms and find out what relations certain organisms have with other ones. We also learned that lineages all lead back to one common ancestor. There were five different files that explained each process step by step.

Rating: ★★★★
This was very good and easy to follow, but it was really long. I guess it was good and informative, but it was kind of boring, that's why i gave it only 4 stars.

EVOLUTION Blog 10: Weblab Bio in Motion

In this weblab, we saw how natural selection and survival of the fittest led to evolution, and how certain traits would prevail over others. We could see how evolution was a slow and gradual change and how mutations could be either good or bad. Good mutations could lead to other advantages that helped that organism develop step by step. For example, longer arms meant it was easier to grab food, so it developed from 2 segments to 3. Then having even longer ares let it fly and run away from predators, so it evolved from 3 segments to 4.

Rating: ★★★★★
I really liked this, because it was clear and to the point, and there was a demonstration to further explain evolution.

EVOLUTION Blog 8: The Future is Wild

In the future, the global warming will make the Earth a hard place to live. It will become too hot so most of the mammals die out, leaving fishes in the ocean and insects on land. The Earth will become home to insects. This new species of skyhoppers evolves from grasshoppers. Because of too much heat, the grasses the grasshoppers eat die, and they develop their wings, claws, and teeth to be able to eat other insects. They are able to fly around, which make it easier to catch their prey, and the claws and teeth help to catch and eat.