Gallery Search Important Facts
Diversity of Mammal Life Mammal life greatly diversified during the Dinosaur Orders Cenozoic era. All mammals are classified as being in kingdom animalia and phylum chordata.
Class mammalia is further divided into 29 orders. Animals belonging to the same
order have many features in common.
Find the extinct Cenozoic relatives be- Look at the saurischian and longing to the same order as the follow- ornithischian dinosaur pelvis forms. ing living mammals: The blue bone is the pubis. Tree sloth Find Desmostylus , an extinct Elephant Dinosaurs are divided into two orders mammal from the Cenozoic era Armadillo based on the shape of their pelvis. (65 million years ago - present). Grizzly Bear Desmostylus has no Beaver Find the following dinosaurs; are they living relatives. ornithischian or saurischian?
Which living mammals do scientists use to try and understand Desmostylus ? Albertosaurus ______
______Ornithomimus ______
What comparisons can you make between the anatomy of ice age mammals and Lambeosaurus ______today’s mammals? Plateosaurus ______Camptosaurus ______How would these trends have aided survival during the ice age? ______Barosaurus ______
Diversity of Plant Life Find the ginkgo. Birds are Descendents of Dinosaurs
Plant life rapidly evolved Look at the pelvis on Bambi- and flourished during the raptor and compare it to the Mesozoic era. pelvis of the Great Blue Heron.
Angiosperms (flowering Circle the order of dinosaur plants) did not evolve until from which birds evolved. the Cretaceous period. Ornithischian Find and sketch the following Jurassic fossil plants: Find Bambiraptor . Saurischian
Ginkgo Cycad Horsetail Large dinosaurs like T. rex went extinct 65 mya, while birds survived. What characteristics helped birds survive? ______
Compare and contrast other skeletal features of the Great Blue Heron and the Bambiraptor .
Similarities Differences
What reproductive structures do you see on plants like ferns, ______cycads, and conifers? ______
What advantages do angiosperms have over non-flowering At the far left is Hesperornis , an extinct flightless bird. plants? All that remains of its “wing” is a vestigial bone. It was a ______specialized diving bird something like penguins today.
Birds and Hands-On Biodiversity Level 2
Gallery Search Important Facts
Adaptations to Flight Sexual Dimorphism in Birds
Birds have evolved many features Sexual dimorphism is the differences in form for a life of flight. between males and females of the same species.
Search to find four features that Find the following birds in the gallery, and using help support flight (open drawers). the descriptions provided, circle whether our ______specimens are male ♂ or female ♀. ______Wild Turkey ♂ feathers are red, purple, green, bronze Find the Common Loon. ______♀ feathers are brown
Of today’s animals, feathers are unique to birds and serve many Magnificent Frigate Bird functions. Look around the gallery (open drawers) and list three different functions of feathers. ♂ scarlet red throat patch ______♀ white breast
Unlike other flying birds the Common Loon has solid bones! So Canvasback Duck does the Ostrich. This is an example of convergent evolution. ♂ red head, black breast, whitish body ♀ head and body are brown Why did the adaptation of solid bones evolve in these species? ______Why might the males and females of a species ______have different feather colouration? ______
Invasive Species
Invasive species are non-indigenous plants and animals that have harmful effects on the habitats where they have been introduced. Many invasive species in the Great Lakes arrived in ballast water discharged by ships from around the world.
Locate the following invasive species. Sketch or describe them, and explain how they might harm Find the Great Lakes Marsh and the live fish tank. Inside the the local habitat into which they were unwittingly tank is the Round Goby. Nearby you will find other invasive introduced. species.
Sea Lamprey Purple Loosestrife
Effect on Habitat Effect on Habitat ______
Zebra Mussel Round Goby
Effect on Habitat Effect on Habitat ______