Staple ticket here
Name: __________________________________________________________________________
Date (visited museum):________________________ Period: __________
Biology: Age of Mammals | Extra Credit
For this assignment, you will need to visit the Natural History
Museum in Los Angeles and spend time visiting the Age of
Mammals exhibit.
This exhibit can be explained with 6 words- “Continents move.
Climates change. Mammals evolve.”
For this assignment, you are to take notes throughout the exhibit,
during your visit and exploration (more detailed instructions will
be given as you move on). You must also staple your ticket to the
box on the left (as proof you actually went; no ticket = no credit).
Worth _________ points; due on ___________________
Exhibit notes
As you make your way to the exhibit, please follow this worksheet
to avoid confusion. The first floor focuses on evolution of
mammals and the upstairs level focuses on distinguishing
mammals. Enjoy!!
The Age of Mammals
1. The age of mammals is known as the _______________________
era, and began _________ million years ago.
What is a Mammal? (red/orange sign)
As you move past the entrance you will see a cheetah. Observe the transitional animals.
2. What are the 4 key traits all mammals share?

_________________________________________

_________________________________________

_________________________________________
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_________________________________________
3. Behind the Cheetah, there is a large skeletal specimen. Before looking at the given information,
what kind of animal do you think this is? ________________________________________________________
a. What is the actual
animal?___________________________________________________________________________________
b. Which two common mammals are distant relatives of this organism?
________________________________________
&
_________________________________________
Adapting to Grasslands (green sign)
4. What changes in the climate caused grasslands to replace many forests?
________________________________________
&
_________________________________
5. In order to survive, mammals had to adapt to a new ________________________ of ___________________
and a new __________________________________.
6. What were two adaptations that these mammals evolved?
________________________________________
&
_________________________________
Take a moment to look at the whale evolution above you,.
7. Some of these organisms have small bones on their undersides, where hind limbs might have
once been. Using your previous knowledge, what are these bones called?
______________________________________________________________________________
Challenges for Mammals (blue sign)
8. One of the major challenges was surviving the changing habitats. How did the mammalian
population, as a whole, deal with this? ______________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Human evolution is behind the “continuing evolution”, but skip that for now…continue on and we’ll come back to it.
The Future of Mammals & Evolutionary Explotion (green signs)
9. Today’s climate is changing
years
/ decades
faster / slower
(circle one)
than at any other time in the last 10,000
(circle one).
10. Make sure to look at the fossils of early mammals. Which one was an early relative of the whale?
___________________________________________________________________
11. After dinosaurs became extinct, mammals began to diversify…pretty rapidly. From your previous
knowledge, what term best describes this?
A. Precambrian explosion
C. Adaptive radiation
B. Gradualism
D. Convergent evolution
12. What are three factors that play a role in the current number of mammal species?
 _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________

_____________________________________________
Make your way back to the human evolution wall
Early Humans
13. What were the three key features, in human evolution?

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________
14. What four things set us apart from apes? Explain each as you move through this portion.
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________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Now
15. What is your interpretation of Tim Flannery’s quote?________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Make your way upstairs. Start on the left wall, where it focuses on “How can we tell?”
Where they mammals? & What did they eat?
16. What structure do scientists mainly look at, in determining if the animal is, or was, a mammal?
_________________________________
17. What does the structure tell you about their diet? What information can you gather by looking at
these? ________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Male or female?
18. What structure identifies male and female sperm whales? __________________________________________
19. What structure typically helps to identify males and females of many mammal species? (be
specific here) _______________________________________________
How did they move?
20. Which structure helps to identify how mammals moved? ____________________________________________
21. The dolphin fin, saber tooth cat paw, and bat wing have similar structures, while having very
different functions. A) What do we call these? B) What pattern on evolution is this?
A)_____________________________________________
B) ___________________________________________________
How did they behave?
22. What does the healed bone of the saber toothed cat tell us about their behavior?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
23. Look at the dolphin evolution (skulls). What behavior is different between those that had
symmetrical nostrils and those that did not (asymmetrical)?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Move through the last side/other wall.
24. What was Los Angeles once like? ____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
25. Write a brief reflection on the exhibit as a whole. ____________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________________