Assignment: Animal Evolution Paper

Charles Darwin was one of the most influential scientific figures. For this project, you will create an evolutionary history of a modern day organism. You need to find the organism's earliest ancestor, and create a timeline of how your organism may have evolved to what it is today. You should also be able to describe certain adaptations your organism acquired and has that allowed and helped its evolution.

Select one of the following organisms:

ElephantBirds
HorseShark
TigerRhinoceros
WhaleGiraffe
CrocodileMan
Dog
Bear

OR you may choose a different organism that you feel strongly about, but please get it approved by me first.

For this paper, you need to use reputable sources (try and stay away from .com websites), and at least three different sources that give you information about your animal. PLEASE CITE THROUGHOUT YOUR PAPER. I will take off several points for improper citations and no works cited/bibliography page.

Format: 4 pages long, double spaced, with a work cited page (5th page). Please use Times New Roman size 12 font, and 1 inch margins on all four sides of the paper. I WILL NOT ACCEPT ANY PAPERS THAT ARE SHORTER THAN FOUR PAGES LONG. This is 10% of your grade and you need to work hard on it- I will not be grading it as easily as the last paper.

Your paper should address the following content:

•The earliest ancestor of your organism and the intermediate forms that led to the modern day animal.

•Compare and contrast modern and intermediate species adaptations.

•Compare and contrast the environmental conditions that influenced your organisms evolution.

•List modern relatives and their adaptations i.e. wolves are a modern relative of the dog

•Give a direct timeline of the evolution of your organism's evolution- this can either be a picture that shows all the different organisms your modern day organism evolved from (with dates) or you may write out the timeline in words