Classroom Resources

This interactive module allows students to examine fossils of early humans and compare them to modern primates.

This model shows the skull of Tiktaalik, a vertebrate that existed about 375 million years ago and had features of both fish and tetrapods (four-limbed animals).

This model shows the skeleton of Tiktaalik, a vertebrate that existed about 375 million years ago and had features of both fish and tetrapods (four-limbed animals).

This model shows the pectoral fin bones of Tiktaalik, a vertebrate that existed about 375 million years ago and had features of both fish and tetrapods (four-limbed animals).

This model shows the pelvis of Tiktaalik, a vertebrate that existed about 375 million years ago and had features of both fish and tetrapods (four-limbed animals).

This model shows the humerus bone of Tiktaalik, a vertebrate that existed about 375 million years ago and had features of both fish and tetrapods (four-limbed animals).

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study on prehistoric human food sources. In this study, scientists used carbon isotopes to determine how the advent of agriculture affected human diets.

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study that explored how dinosaurs may have regulated their body temperatures.

A number of questions are embedded within the short film Great Transitions: The Origin of Humans. The film explores the major fossil finds from Africa that provide insights into the evolution of modern humans from a common ancestor we share with other primates.

This animated short video tells the story of the discovery of the coelacanth, a species that belongs to a group of lobe-finned fish that existed 400 million years ago.

Several questions are embedded within the short film Great Transitions: The Origin of Birds, which describes some of the most important fossil evidence showing that birds descended from dinosaurs.

This interactive module traces the evolutionary history of birds by comparing the bone structures of a chicken to those of other species.