The document outlines a lesson plan for high school students that examines the evolution of whales from land mammals to ocean dwellers through analyzing fossils and constructing a food web. Students will learn about key whale ancestors like Ambulocetus and Basilosaurus that show transitional traits between land and sea mammals. The lesson aims to demonstrate how natural selection led to anatomical adaptations in whales that allowed them to thrive in the ocean environment.

1. Field Based Science: Topic/Key Content:
Living Environment
Author: Dr. Robert D. Craig
Title: Introduction of Food Web and Mammalian Evolution of the Whale
Topic/Key Content: Living Environment
Time Frame: 1 trip, two 90 minute class periods
Audience: Living Environment, grade 10-12
Aim (Instructional Objectives):
To examine what an aquatic food web describes and how it is constructed
To investigate how mammals evolved to become whales
SWBAT (Students will be able to):
Explain the evolution of the Whale (From land to sea)
Demonstrate construction of a food web
Procedure:
Student will view
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/4/l_034_05.html
And
http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/bluewhl.htm
Students will review what is to be a Palentologist is a pre-assessment. They will
them begin to
From the Aquarium, a classroom assessment will take place. Two charts will be
completed, as well as a Food Web.
Students will also be asked to describe the tools and technology used by experts
of palentologists in a brief essay format.
To construct a food web and a Phylogenetic tree

2. Will produce a short essay on evolution
The blue whale is the largest mammal, possibly the largest animal, to ever inhabit
the earth. Its body is long, somewhat tapered, and streamlined, with the head
making up less than one-fourth of its total body length. Its rostrum (upper part of
the head) is very broad and flat and almost U-shaped, with a single ridge that
extends just forward of the blowholes to the tip of the snout. Its blowholes are
Motivation (Hook):
You have recently been employed by the new York Aquarium as a Palentologist
Scientist to upkeep the Museums permanent Mummy collection. Before the interview,
you have been asked to review the procedure for finding,
. The Museum has recently acquired “Demitrius” and Red Shroud Mummy, and they
know little about Him. How do you prepare for your interview?
National Science Objectives meet by this Lesson:
Project 2061
By the end of the 12th grade, students should know that
• The basic idea of biological evolution is that the earth's present-day species developed
from earlier, distinctly different species.
• Molecular evidence substantiates the anatomical evidence for evolution and provides
additional detail about the sequence in which various lines of descent branched off from
one another.
• Natural selection provides the following mechanism for evolution: Some variation in
heritable characteristics exists within every species, some of these characteristics give
individuals an advantage over others in surviving and reproducing, and the advantaged
offspring, in turn, are more likely than others to survive and reproduce. The proportion of
individuals that have advantageous characteristics will increase.
• Heritable characteristics can be observed at molecular and whole-organism levels-in
structure, chemistry, or behavior. These characteristics strongly influence what
capabilities an organism will have and how it will react, and therefore influence how
likely it is to survive and reproduce.
• New heritable characteristics can result from new combinations of existing genes or from
mutations of genes in reproductive cells. Changes in other cells of an organism cannot be
passed on to the next generation.

3. • Natural selection leads to organisms that are well suited for survival in particular
environments. Chance alone can result in the persistence of some heritable characteristics
having no survival or reproductive advantage or disadvantage for the organism. When an
environment changes, the survival value of some inherited characteristics may change.
• The theory of natural selection provides a scientific explanation for the history of life on
earth as depicted in the fossil record and in the similarities evident within the diversity of
existing organisms.
National Science Objectives meet by this Lesson:
Science as Inquiry
CONTENT STANDARD A: As a result of activities in grades 9-12, all students
should develop
• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
• Understandings about scientific inquiry
Standard #4 – Science
• Students will understand and apply
Level: Intermediate
Key Ideas:
1. Living Environment: Dawin’s theory of evolution
2. Living Environment: Chemical techniques can be used to determine characteristics of
artifacts.
Standard #6 - Interconnectedness Science
• Students will understand
Level: Intermediate
Key Ideas:
1. Living Environment: Relation to Roman Civilization and how cultures intertwine
2. Living Environment: Relation to DNA analysis, and biological determinations in
Forensic Science
Standard #3 –Language for Critical Analysis
Students will listen, speak and write for critical analysis and evaluation
As readers, students will analyze experiences, idea, information and issuesz presented by
others using a variety of established criteria.
• Students Key Ideas:
1. Carbon Dating: Students use logarithmic and anti logarithmic calculation for carbon
dating

4. Pre Assessment
What does a Palentologist do?
How does a Palentologist work relate to Darwin’s Theories?
What is Whale?
How do whales breathe?
How do Whales swim?
What are some Mammals that swim?
How is the evolution of snakes related to whales?

5. How do think whales evolve?
Brief Introduction (by Instructor)
Lets go through your pre-assessment>
What does a Palentologist Do?
They examine fossils bones and past work of archeologist to determine the evolution and
existence of past organisms
How does a Palentologist work relate to Darwin’s Theories?
What is a Whale?
The term whale is ambiguous: it can refer to all cetaceans, to just the larger ones, or
only to members of particular families within the order Cetacea. The last
definition is the one followed here. Whales are those cetaceans which are
neither dolphins (i.e. members of the families Delphinidae or Platanistoidea)
nor porpoises.

6. How do whales breathe?
Whales have lungs and must come to the surface to breathe. They have nostrils called
blowholes. These are located on the top of the head to access air easily. When Southern
Right Whales exhale, condensation from the 2 blowholes forms a 'v-shaped' 'blow'. The
noise may be heard over a kilometre away.
How do whales breathe?
How do Whales swim?
What are some Mammals that swim?
How is the evolution of snakes related to whales?
How do think whales evolve?

7. Work Description:
Modern paleontology sets ancient life in its contexts by studying how long-term physical
changes of global geography paleogeography and climate paleoclimate have affected the
evolution of life, how ecosystems have responded to these changes and have adapted the
planetary environment in turn and how these mutual responses have affected today's
patterns of biodiversity. Hence, paleontology overlaps with geology (the study of rocks
and rock formations) as well as with botany, biology, zoology and ecology – fields
concerned with life forms and how they interact.
Instructor: Let’s go through the questions you answered in your pre-assessment to this
lesson.
Techniques and tools used by the Palentologist
To Begin:
.
For Further investigation:
The evolution of whales has been a mystery. How did a large, big-brained mammal
-- air-breathing, warm-blooded, giving birth to live young -- come to live
entirely in water, when mammals evolved on land? The discovery of many
fossils with transitional features documents the transformation of whales from
land animals to ocean dwellers. Another indication of whales' evolutionary
heritage can be seen in the way they move
Whales evolved from warm-blooded, air breathing mammalian ancestors that lived on
land. The transition from land to sea, probably in search of food, presented difficulties for
which adaptations developed over many generations. Smooth skin and loss of protruding
ear parts and hind limbs streamlined whales for swimming. The nostrils moved to the top
of the head to facilitate breathing and an underlaying, insulating layer of blubber replaced
hair for warmth. The body, supported by water, was able to reach its enormous size.

8. Skull similar to that of a Wolf the shape is only found in whales today – sahara
desert once had water basolasaurs had kne caps bones but totoally live in water
says that basolosaurus once lived on land- whales have remenants of these parts
Sanomix whales are related to 15 million year old wolf like mammal
Assessment
The assessment of the New York Aquariummabout their Whale will include
construction of a Food web
Chart 1- Techniques used by the palentology
Evidence found What it reveals?
Cetaceans
Ambulocetus
Rodhocetus
Basilosaurus
Dorudontidae
Modern Whales
Food Web
Chart - Techniques used by the palentology
Evidence found What it reveals?
Cetaceans
Ambulocetus
Rodhocetus
Basilosaurus
Dorudontidae

9. Modern Whales
What happens further up the food web? Each level of a food web or a food chain is
called a trophic or feeding level, and the organisms in the food web are classified by
whether they are primary producers or consumers. The consumers in food webs are called
A simple marine food chain might look like the one to the left. The salmon is the top
consumer; the herring are the secondary consumers; and the copepods are the primary
consumers. The phytoplankton are the producers.
A more complex marine food web might look like the one to the right. Despite the visual
complexity of the diagram, many species and many links between species are not shown.
Organisms may have more than one trophic role because they eat a variety of food types.

10. from the Macromedia Website).
Organism Trophic Type Prey/Food Predators/Grazers
algae primary producer --- krill, fish, blue whales
birds carnivorous consumer krill, fish seals, killer whales
blue whales planktivorous consumer algae, krill killer whales
birds, seals, killer
fish omnivorous consumer algae, krill
whales
blue whales, fish, birds,
killer whales top consumer ---
seals
krill herbivorous consumer algae fish, blue whales, birds
seals carnivorous consumer fish, birds killer whales

11. Interdisciplary Links:
view http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/4/l_034_05.html
http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/bluewhl.htm
• ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creodonts
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creodonts
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creodonts
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creodonts
http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/coasts/whales/biol.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/4/l_034_05.html
http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/coasts/whales/biol.html
• Living Environment www.phschool.com (“Biology” Prentice Hall, 2003)

12. Vocabulary list: (to be completed by students)
1. Palentologist
2. Phylogenetic tree
3. Darwins Theory of Evolution

13. 4. Evolution by Natural Selection
5. Homologous body structures
6. Taxonomy
7. Vestigial Organs
8. Descent with Modification
9. Survival of the Fitest
10. Food Web
11. Producers
12. Consumers
13. Autotrophs
14. Heterotrophys
1. Palentologist: is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination
of plant and animal fossils
retrived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleontology
2. Phylogenetic tree: A phylogenetic tree, also called an evolutionary tree, is a tree
showing the evolutionary interrelationships among various species or other entities that

14. are believed to have a common ancestor. In a phylogenetic tree, each node with
descendants represents the most recent common ancestor of the descendants, with edge
lengths sometimes corresponding to time estimates.
Retrived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylogenetic_tree
3. Darwins Theory of Evolution
After becoming eminent among scientists for his field work and inquiries into geology,
he proposed and provided scientific evidence that all species of life have evolved over
time from one or a few common ancestors through the process of natural selection.[1] The
fact that evolution occur
4. Evolution by Natural Selection:
Natural selection is the process by which favorable traits that are heritable become more
common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and
unfavorable traits that are heritable become less common. Natural selection acts on the
phenotype, or the observable characteristics of an organism, such that individuals with
favorable phenotypes are more likely to survive and reproduce than those with less
favorable phenotypes. If these phenotypes have a genetic basis, then the genotype
associated with the favorable phenotype will increase in frequency in the next generation.
Over time, this process can result in adaptations that specialize organisms for particular
ecological niches and may eventually result in the emergence of new species
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Selection
5. Homologous body structures: In anthropology and archaeology, homology is a type of
analogy whereby two human beliefs, practices or artefacts are separated by time but share
similarities due to genetic or historical connections.
Retrived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homology_%28anthropology%29
6. Taxonomy: Taxonomies, or taxonomic schemes, are composed of taxonomic units
known as taxa (singular taxon), or kinds of things that are arranged frequently in a
hierarchical structure, typically related by subtype-supertype relationships, also called
parent-child relationships. In such a subtype-supertype relationship the subtype kind of
thing has by definition the same constraints as the supertype kind of thing plus one or
more additional constraints.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy
7. Vestigial Organs
In evolutionary biology and comparative anatomy, vestigiality is a term which describes
homologous characters of organisms which have lost all or most of their original function

15. in a species through evolution. These may take various forms such as anatomical
structures, behaviors and biochemical pathways. These
Although structures usually called "vestigial" are largely or entirely functionless, a
vestigial structure may retain lesser functions or develop new ones
8. Descent with Modification
A group of organisms is said to have common descent if they have a common ancestor.
In modern biology, it is generally accepted that all living organisms on Earth are
descended from a common ancestor or ancestral gene pool
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_descent
9. Survival of the Fitest
10
9. Survival of the Fitest
A food chain is the flow of energy from one organism to the next. Organisms in a food
chain are grouped into trophic levels — from the Greek word for nourishment, trophikos
— based on how many links they are removed from the primary producers. Trophic
levels may consist of either a single species or a group of species that are presumed to
share both predators and prey. They usually start with a primary producer and end with a
carnivore
trophic
15. Producers Primary production is the production of organic compounds from
atmospheric or aquatic carbon dioxide, principally through the process of
photosynthesis, with chemosynthesis being much less important. All life on earth
is directly or indirectly reliant on primary production. The organisms responsible
for primary production are known as primary producers or autotrophs, and form
the base of the food chain.
16. Consumers
17. autotropys

16. 18. Heterotrophys
Glossary
1. Absorption Spectroscopy: refers to a range of techniques employing the
interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter. In absorption spectroscopy,
the intensity of a beam of light of measured before and after interaction with a
sample is compared.
( Retrived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_spectroscopy)
use. Retrived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_classification
12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectroscopy)
13. retrived from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_diffraction)