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Extinction Video

Worksheet

Read through these questions before the video begins, so you can glean the answers as you watch & listen.  Turn in at end of class.

1)     What is the average “lifetime” of a species?

2)    What percent of organisms that ever existed are now extinct?

3)    How many “mass extinctions” have there been in the history of life on Earth?

4)    How is a mass extinction like a house of cards?

5)    Explain the idea that evolution and extinction go hand in hand.

6)    What group of animals was able to undergo an evolutionary radiation at the end of the Cretaceous, when dinosaurs were wiped out?

7)    What is causing the next great extinction on Earth?

8)    Why are the researchers in Kinkajon National Park in Thailand looking for predators, as opposed to other species?

9)    What is the #1 cause of extinctions today?

10)  What is the #2 cause of extinctions today?

11)   Give two examples from the video that give us hope in the face of the grim news about extinctions in today’s world.

12)  The video closes with a quote from Darwin: “…the appearance of new forms and the disappearance of old forms are bound together…”  What is the significance of this quote, as it relates to evolution and extinction?

13)  Group Queston:  After the video, gather in your small groups to discuss and address the following issue.

Evolutionary radiations have occurred many times over the course of Earth’s history.  There are two main types of events that can lead to evolutionary radiations.  What are the two kinds of events?  What kind of evolutionary expansion results from each?

Compare the radiation you described in question 6 above with one of the examples (called “adaptive radiations”) Wilson describes in chapter 7 (Hawaiian honeycreepers, Galapagos finches, Lake Victoria cichlid fish).  What is the difference in these two types of radiations?  What are the requirements of each, and what are the consequences for diversity?