White Oak Middle School

Science 7 - Unit 4 - Biological Evolution and the Reasons for Extinction

1. Pick an extinct animal and learn about it (class deck of cards to choose from)
2. Fill in a Student Design Folio (information about extinctions, your animal, your design for an exhibit about your animal)
3. Create a presentation about your animal  

Extinct Animal Research Center

Aurochs About Education, Aurochs Britannica, Aurochs  Red List, Aurochs (see text summary) History of Information, Aurochs	Baiji White Dolphin Whales & Dolphins Live Science, Baiji Factual Facts, Baiji Red List, Baiji. (see text summary)	Caribbean Monk Seal Bagheera, Caribbean Monk Seal Science Daily Red List  ( text summary) Seal Conservation
Caspian Tiger Factual Facts ThoughtCo, Caspian Tiger Endangered List Red List (see text summary)	Cave Lion Thought Co, Cave Lion FLA Fossil Treasures, Cave Lion Science Now, Cave Lion Prehistoric Wildlife, Cave Lion	Dire Wolf Nat Hist Florida, Dire Wolf  SanDiego Zoo, Dire Wolf Thought Co, Dire Wolf Dire Wolf Project
Dodo  A-Z Animals, Dodo Oxford, Dodo (see links at bottom) MessyBeast, Dodo Bagheera Dodo	Golden Toad Animal Diversity Web  Golden Toad  Mother Earth, Golden Toad Oxford, G. Toad (see links at bottom) Bagheera Golden Toad	Great Auk Britannica, Great Auk Diversity Web Great Auk Smithsonian, Great Auk MessyBeast, Great Auk
Irish Deer or Elk ThoughtCo Irish Elk  New World Encyclopedia, Irish Elk Britannica, Irish Elk Twilight Beasts	Moa Bird New Zealand Science, Moas Messy Beast, Moa New Zealand Birds	Passenger Pigeon  ThoughtCo Passenger Pigeon MessyBeast, Passenger Pigeon Bagheera, Passenger Pigeon Smithsonian, Passenger Pigeon
Pyrenean Ibex ThoughtCo Pyrenean Ibex Extinct Animals Mother Nature, Pyrenean Ibex Sixth Extinction, Pyrenean Ibex	Quagga Messy Beast, Quagga Animal Diversity Web, Quagga Factual Facts, Quagga Extinct Animals Quagga	Sabre-toothed Tiger, Smilodon A-Z Animals, Smilodon Thought Co, Smilodon LiveScience, SaberTooth Extinct Animals Smilodon
Stegosaurus Dino Directory LiveScience Stegosaurus About Dinosaurs Britannica, Stegosaurus NPR- Asteroid	Stellers Sea Cow A-Z, Stellers Sea Cow Nat Hist San Diego, Sea Cow MessyBeast, Stellers Sea Cow BBC Sea Cow	Tasmanian Tiger or Thylacine Britannica, Thylacine MessyBeast, Thylacine The Conversation, Thylacine Oxford, Thylacine (see links at bottom)
Tyrannosauros Rex Dino Directory TRex Britannica, TRex LiveScience TRex Factual Facts   NPR- Asteroid	West African Black Rhinoceros Save the Rhino  World Atlas, WA Black Rhino Mother Earth, WA Black Rhino Red List (see text summary)	Woolly Mammoth  A-Z Animals, Woolly Mammoth National Geographic, Mammoth  Berkely, About Mammoths  Britannica Mammoth
More Pictures  Britannica Image Quest Enclyclopedia Britannica (try all levels, images)	Picture Credits: Most Pictures from Britannica Image Quest  Golden Toad: Britannica Middle School Caspian Tiger:  http://3200tigres.wwf.fr/en-savoir-plus/especes/ Moa Bird: Coastal Moa by Michael B. H./Creative Commons 3.0  Stegasaurus: Britannica Middle School

Information about Extinction Events in History

• Endangered Species International 
• National Geographic
• The Guardian
• What killed the Dinosaurs?

Information about your animal needed to complete your Design Folio

• Identification of species common name and/or scientific name
• Description of when organism lived in Earth’s history and the environmental conditions of the time 
• Description of evolutionary relationships to organisms living today (including anatomical and/or embryological similarities)
• Description of adaptations organism had that allowed it to survive in past environment
• Representation of fossil or remains (picture, diagram, drawing)
• Description of type of fossils or remains found
• Identification of what caused extinction
• Explanation of why organism was unable to survive extinction event

 

Materials

• Smithsonian Exhibit Proposal RFP  : Explains the project
• Student Design Folio:Smithsonian Exhibit Proposal  : This is an organizer you must complete before doing your presentation
• Recently Extinct Animal Cards  : Information on recently extinct animals for class jigsaw
• Extinct Animals Research Options   : Information on animals for research projects