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Introductions to Statistics
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! The Molecular Clock and/or/versus the Fossil Record
! Plant Evolution@
! Evolution & Extinction@
! Focussed on the Fossil Record@
! Phylogeography@
! Focused on the Evolution of Plants@
! Insect Evolution@
! Living Fossils@
! Evolution Sciences versus Doctrines of Creationism and Intelligent Design@
! The Gaia Hypothesis@
! Introductions to both Fossil and Recent Plant Taxa@
! Trees@


Teaching Documents about Evolution


About.com: Education > Biology > Evolution, and Education > Geology > Fossils, Time and Evolution.

ActionBioscience.org (American Institute of Biological Sciences): ActionBioscience.org is a non-commercial, educational web site created to promote bioscience. Go to:
! Evolution: Fact and Theory (by Richard E. Lenski). See also: Issues in Evolution. A link directory.
This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! AG EvoBio, Germany. Evolution in Biology, Culture and Society (in German). See especially: The annotated link directories Publications and Videos. Excellent! Also worth checking out:
! EvoBioBlog (by Arbeitsgemeinschaft Evolution in Biologie, Kultur und Gesellschaft, in German).

Warren D. Allmon, Paleontological Research Institution, (Museum of the Earth), Ithaca NY: Evolution and Creationism: A Guide for Museum Docents. PDF file, version 2.0; August 18, 2005.

John Alroy, Smithsonian Institution´s Department of Paleobiology: Lefalophodon: A History of Evolutionary Biology Web Site.
This page is an informal guide to the history of evolutionary biology from about 1800 to about 1950.
This expired link is still available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Annenberg Learner (media and telecommunications to advance excellent teaching in American schools):
Rediscovering Biology. An online textbook, written by multiple authors (UMass Amherst, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Portland Community College).
The link is to a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

H. Aptyka et al. (2022): Effects of situated learning and clarification of misconceptions on contextual reasoning about natural selection. Open access, Evolution: Education and Outreach, 15.

! J. E. Armstrong and J. Jernstedt, The Botanical Society of America, St. Louis:
Botanical Society of America's Statement on Evolution.
See also here.

! S. Asche et al. (2023): What it takes to solve the Origin (s) of Life: An integrated review of techniques. Free access, arXiv.
! Note figure 1: Comprehensive array of experimental and computational techniques, along with conceptual bridges, which are primarily utilised in OoL studies.
"... We review the common tools and techniques that have been used significantly in OoL [origin(s) of life] studies in recent years.
[...] it spans broadly — from analytical chemistry to mathematical models — and highlights areas of future work ..."

Stanley M. Awramik, Department of Earth Science, University of California, Santa Barbara:
! The Record of Life on the Early Earth.
Powerpoint presentation.

F.J. Ayala, Walter M. Fitch, and Michael T. Clegg (eds.; 2000): Variation and Evolution in Plants and Microorganisms: Toward a New Synthesis 50 Years after Stebbins. Online book, National Academy of Sciences (2000).
This expired link is now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.
See also here

Nicholas H. Barton et al. (2007), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: Evolution. Go to:
! Table of Contents. For each chapter, there are links to figures and tables, to discussion topics and to notes. See also:
! Evolution Figures. The images that are available for online use can be accessed by clicking on the appropriate chapter. See especially:
! Evolution Figures: Chapter 10.

BBC:
! Evolution.

Ernst-Georg Beck, Zentrale für Unterrichtsmedien im Internet e.V. (ZUM Internet e.V.): Evolution. Lecture notes (in German).

! C.M. Belin and B. Kisida (2012): Science Standards, Science Achievement, and Attitudes about Evolution. Abstract.

Michael J. Benton (2010): The origins of modern biodiversity on land. In PDF, Transactions of the Royal Society, B.

M.J. Benton (2010): Studying Function and Behavior in the Fossil Record. Free access, PLoS Biol, 8: e1000321.

! M.J. Benton and B.C. Emerson (2007): How did life become so diverse? The dynamics of diversification according to the fossil record and molecular phylogenetics. Open access, Palaeontology, 50: 23-40.
Note text figure 1: Patterns of diversification of: A, families of marine invertebrates; B, species of vascular land plants; C, families of non-marine tetrapods; and D, families of insects.

M.J. Benton and D.A.T. Harper: Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record. Go to:
! Companion Website: Introduction to Paleobiology and the Fossil Record. On this website you can download the figures in jpeg format at standard resolution (96 dpi) for viewing on screen and at a higher resolution (300 dpi) for downloading. They can also be downloaded as a Powerpoint file for each chapter.
! See also here (in PDF).
For better navigation note the table of contents (in PDF).

Michael J. Benton, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol:
Evidence of evolutionary transitions. Electronic publication on the ActionBioscience.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Michael J. Benton (2001): Finding the tree of life: matching phylogenetic trees to the fossil record through the 20th century. PDF file, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 268, 2123-2130. See also here

M.J. Benton (2001): Department of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol: Biodiversity on land and in the sea. PDF file, Geological Journal 36, 211-230.
See also here.

Museum of Paleontology, The University of California, Berkeley: Understanding Science: How Science Really Works. This is a free resource that accurately communicates what science is and how it really works.

The Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), University of California, Berkeley (with support provided by the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute:
Welcome to the Evolution Wing. Explore the theory of evolution and learn about the history of evolutionary thought.
! Understanding Evolution - your one-stop choice for information on evolution. Understanding Evolution is a non-commercial, education website, teaching the science and history of evolutionary biology. This site is here to help you understand what evolution is, how it works, how it factors into your life, how research in evolutionary biology is performed, and how ideas in this area have changed over time. Excellent! Go to:
! What is evolution and how does it work? Detailed explanations of the mechanisms of evolution and the history of life on Earth.
See especially:
! History of Evolutionary Thought. Biographies of some of the key players in evolutionary thought over the last 300 years.

The Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), University of California at Berkeley: Paleontology Without Walls. Introduction to the UCMP Virtual Exhibits. Go to: ENTER EVOLUTION: Theory and History, or The Phylogeny of Life. The ancestor/descendant relationships which connect all organisms that have ever lived.

Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley: Plant Biology - Evolution - Ecology.

! BioDeepTime:
This project seeks to address one of the central challenges in biodiversity science by compiling and harmonizing ecological time series from modern and fossil sources to investigate how biological dynamics and drivers vary across timescales ranging from months to millions of years. Note likewise here.
Please take notice:
! J. Smith et al. (2023): BioDeepTime: A database of biodiversity time series for modern and fossil assemblages. Open access, Global Ecol Biogeogr.
Note table 1: Approximate temporal grain (the amount of time represented in a sample) for time series, number of time series and number of samples from source databases included in BioDeepTime.
"... The BioDeepTime database enables integrated biodiversity analyses across a far greater range of temporal scales than has previously been possible. It can be used to provide critical insights into how natural systems will respond to ongoing and future environmental changes as well as new opportunities for theoretical insights into the temporal scaling of biodiversity dynamics ..."

Biologie-Schule.de:
! Die Evolution.
Lecture notes, in German.

Biology-Nation. This website provides resources for anyone with an interest in biology. (see also Biology-Nation.com Whois Record). Many links lead to Wikipedia. Go to: Introduction to Evolutionary Biology.

Biology Online. Biology Online aims to educate and promote awareness of all things biology, offering free and easy access to information in the biological sciences. Go to:
The Origins of Life. See also:
Genetics and Evolution.

Biopedia an openfree bioinfomation encyclopedia: Evolution.

blaquedragonfly.weebly.com (?):
BIOLOGY STUDY RESOURCES. Biology lecture notes, Powerpoint presentations, e.g.:
The History of Life on Earth.

C. Kevin Boyce (2010): The evolution of plant development in a paleontological context. PDF file, Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 13: 102-107.

! Jamie Boyer, The New York Botanical Garden:
What is Paleobotany?. Also worth checking out:
Plant Evolution & Paleobotany. An educational resource for students and teachers studying Earth's history, fossils, and evolution.
! Go to: Paleobotany Short-Course. Lecture notes.
Paleobotany Overview; Life moves to land.
Plant classification.
Rise of Seed Plants.
Rise of flowering plants.
Excellent!

Marshall Brain, Howstuffworks, Inc.: How Evolution Works.

School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol:
! Your Planet Earth (prepared by Jess Trofimovs and Howard Falcon-Lang).
A library of talks on earth sciences and evolutionary topics that may be of interest to earth sciences and education professionals as a basis for engagement and outreach shows in schools. Go to:
Evolution. Powerpoint Presentation, for 14–15 year-olds.

Neil Buckley, Department of Biological Sciences, SUNY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY: Lecture Notes for Bio 208 Evolution. Powerpoint presentations. Snapshot taken by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! N.J. Butterfield (2007): Macroevolution and macroecology through deep time. In PDF, Palaeontology, 50: 41–55. See also here.

P.R. Crane et al. (2004): Fossils and plant phylogeny. Free access, American Journal of Botany, 91: 1683-1699.

! Derek Briggs and Peter Crowther (eds.), Earth Pages, Blackwell Publishing: Paleobiology: A Synthesis (PDF files). Snapshot now taken by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine. Series of concise articles from over 150 leading authorities from around the world. Navigate from the content file. There are no restrictions on downloading this material. Excellent! Worth checking out:
Part 1. Major Events in the History of Life, Pages 1-92.
Part 2. The Evolutionary Process and the Fossil Record, Pages 93-210.
Part 3. Taphonomy, Pages 211-304.
Part 4. Palaeoecology, Pages 305-414.
Part 5. Taxonomy, Phylogeny and Biostratigraphy, Pages 415-490.

Neil Buckley, Department of Biological Sciences, SUNY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY: Bio 102 General Biology II Class Notes. Powerpoint presentations.
Website still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Alison Campbell, Penelope Cooke, Kathrin Cass and Kerry Earl, School for Science and Engineering, The University of Waikato, New Zealand: Evolution for teaching. This website has been developed to provide a web based resource for use by secondary teachers, especially in the science fields of evolution and geological time. Go to: Frequently Asked Questions. See also: Plant Evolution.

Sean Carrington, Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Barbados: THE PLANT KINGDOM. An introduction to the world of plants from an evolutionary perspective.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Citable reviews in the life sciences (Wiley). Go to:
Evolution & Diversity of Life.

! Matthew Cobb, whyevolutionistrue: Excellent open access articles on the evolution of life on Earth - UPDATE 2.

Chris Colby, The Talk.Origins Archive: Introduction to Evolutionary Biology, Version 2.

Richard Cowen, Department of Geology, University of California, Davis: Comparing Plant and Animal Evolution.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Peter R. Crane, Else Marie Friis, and William G. Chaloner (2010): Darwin and the Evolution of Flowers. PDF file, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 365: 347-350. See also here.

P.R. Crane et al. (2004): Fossils and plant phylogeny. Free access, American Journal of Botany, 91: 1683-1699.

Charles Darwin, 1859: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: John Murray. 502 pp. Available from Project Gutenberg.

Emanuele Di Lorenzo, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia:
Early Earth and the Origins of Life.
Powerpoint presentation.

! T. Dobzhansky (1973): Nothing in Biology Makes Sense except in the Light of Evolution. In PDF, The American Biology Teacher, 35: 125-129. See also here (Google books).

P.C.J. Donoghue and Z. Yang (2016): The evolution of methods for establishing evolutionary timescales. In PDF, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 371. See also here.

Freeman Dyson, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ. (Technology Review): The Darwinian Interlude. Carl Woese´s point of view about the post-Darwinian era.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

! N. Eldredge and S.J. Gould (1972): Punctuated equilibria: an alternative to phyletic gradualism. PDF file. In: Schopf, T.J.M. (ed.) Models in Paleobiology. San Francisco, 82-115. See also here.

Wesley Elsberry, The Talk Origins Archive: Punctuated Equilibria. Eldredge´s and Gould´s theory. See also: The Stephen Jay Gould Archive. Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was among the best known and widely read scientists of the late 20th century.

! Encyclopedia of Earth (supported by the Environmental Information Coalition and the National Council for Science and the Environment). Expert-reviewed information about the Earth. For everyone, please take notice. The scope of the Encyclopedia of Earth is the environment of the Earth broadly defined, with particular emphasis on the interaction between society and the natural spheres of the Earth. Excellent! Go to:
Evolution.

ENSI. The main objective of ENSI is to improve the teaching of evolution in high school biology courses by encouraging teachers to teach evolutionary thinking in the context of a more complete understanding of modern scientific thinking. Various evolution lessons, please navigate from here.

M.J. Farabee, Estrella Mountain Community College, Phoenix, Arizona:
! On-Line Biology Book. Table of Contents. Introductory biology lecture notes. Go to:
! The modern view of evolution.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

The Field Museum, Chicago: All about Evolution. About the importance and some misconceptions of evolution.
Now recovered from the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

David H. A. Fitch, Department of Biology, New York University, New York, NY: Evolution at NYU. These pages are designed as reference supplements to the course on evolution. The pages are organized by topic, not necessarily by lecture. You can use the syllabus to navigate to specific pages containing relevant lecture notes, exercises and simulations, e.g. on Darwin, adaptation, evolutionary genetics, speciation, systematics, history of diversity, biogeography, origins of novelty, molecular evolution, coevolution, and human issues.

Deborah Freile, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ:
Historical Geology. Powerpoint Slides for Lecture.
! Go to: The Origin and Evolution of Life. Powerpoint presentation.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

W.A. Friedman (2020): Darwin in the garden: Engaging the public about evolution with museum collections of living objects. Open access, Plants, People, Planet, 2: 294–301.
"... Polls continue to show distressingly high percentages of people around the world do not accept that evolution has occurred.
[...] It is time for botanical gardens and arboreta around the world to commit to leveraging their living collections of museum objects to explain and demonstrate the roles of mutation, variation, and selection in the evolutionary process. In doing so, much could be accomplished to increase scientific literacy at a societal level.

Fundus.org, Vienna: Evolution. PDF file, in German.

Douglas Futuyma, Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York at Stony Brook:
Natural Selection: How Evolution Works (an ActionBioscience.org original interview, American Institute of Biological Sciences).
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

The Geological Society of America (GSA): Evolution and Creationism, Sites describing and/or promoting evolution. An annotated link list. Website saved by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! Steven Goldsmith, Austin College, Sherman, TX:
Evolution, Behavior, and Ecology. and Systematics. For a fundamental understanding of the conceptual framework that biologists use to make sense of the complexity and diversity of organisms. Note e.g.:
! Natural Selection. Powerpoint presentation.

Stephen Jay Gould Archive (sponsored by Art Science Research Laboratory): Cyber Library, Harvard Course:
! B16: History of Earth and Life. A kittenish website. Difficult to set a link, click "Stephen Jay Gould" on the right hand side. Go to:
! Lab 1: The Invertebrate Phyla,
! Lab 2: The Fossil Record,
! Lab 3: Communities through Time, and
! Lab 4: Variation and Evolution (PDF files). See also:
B16: History of Earth and Life, Source Books.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

The Stephen Jay Gould Archive.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was among the best known and widely read scientists of the late 20th century. See also: Geotimes, May 2002: In Memoriam: Stephen Jay Gould.

S.J. Gould, (2002): The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Belknap, 1464 pp., 45.90 Euro, ISBN 0-674-00613-5.
Read an excerpt of this book (in PDF format).
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

! S.J. Gould (1994): Tempo and Mode in the Macroevolutionary Reconstruction of Darwinism. In: Fitch, W.M. And Ayala, F.J. (eds.):
! Tempo And Mode In Evolution: Genetics And Paleontology 50 Years After Simpson. Open access! National Academies Press (US); Washington (DC).

! Linda E. Graham et al. (2000): The origin of plants: Body plan changes contributing to a major evolutionary radiation. Abstracts, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97: 4535-4540.
! See also at here. (in PDF).

! T.R. Gregory (2008): Understanding evolutionary trees. Abstract Evolution: Education and Outreach, 1: 121–137. See also here (in PDF).

! Andrew Grimshaw (2001): The Adventures of Punctuated Equilibria. A Struggle for Authority in the Evolutionary Sciences. PDF file, thesis, Deakin University.

Ken Harding, Evolution Education Resource Center (a Paleo Ring site): Evolution for beginners.

Colin Harris, UK: Geology Shop. A link directory (introductory website slow loading), comprising over 70 individual web pages. Go to:
Evolution and the fossil record.

Life Sciences Outreach Program, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA:
Teacher Materials, Evolution. Resources developed for classroom use by high school biology teachers.

! S.B. Hedges and S. Kumar (2009): Discovering the Timetree of Life. PDF file, In: S.B. Hedges and S. Kumar (eds.): The Timetree of Life.
! See here.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! S.B. Hedges (2009): Life. PDF file, In: S.B. Hedges and S. Kumar (eds.): The Timetree of Life.
! See here.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Scott A. Heckathorn, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Toledo, Ohio, USA:
Biodiversity lecture notes, Powerpoint presentations. Provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine. See especially:
The Evolution of Populations.
The Origin of Species.
Introduction to Animal Evolution.

Simon Heitzinger (2023): Entwicklung eines Unterrichtskonzepts im Kontext von Fehlvorstellungen im Evolutionsunterricht. PDF file, in German. Master thesis, Pädagogische Hochschule Oberösterreich.
See also here.

Trevor Hodkinson, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin: Global Change & Evolution. In PDF. Lecture notes.
Recovered from the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Kent E. Holsinger, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT: Reproductive systems and evolution in vascular plants (PDF file).

Ray Huey and Peter Ward, University of Washington, Seattle: Foundations in Evolution and Systematics. Go to: Diversity through time, and Evo-Devo. PDF file, lecture notes, evolutionary developmental biology.

Gene Hunt, Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution (website hosted by the Paleontological Society, Boulder): Evolutionary Patterns in Fossil Lineages. In PDF, lecture notes, PS Centennial Short Course.
This expired link is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.
See also here.

! D. Jablonski and S.M. Edie (2023): Perfect storms shape biodiversity in time and space. Free access, Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean Society, 2.
"... Many of the most dramatic patterns in biological diversity are created by “Perfect Storms” —rare combinations of mutually reinforcing factors that push origination, extinction, or diversity accommodation to extremes
[...] The Perfect Storms perspective may allow more nuanced and specific applications of our characterization of past events to the present day, even if today’s combination of pressures is in some ways unprecedented ..."

D. Jablonski (2008): Biotic interactions and macroevolution: extensions and mismatches across scales and levels. PDF file, Evolution, 62: 715-739.

! A.H. Knoll and M.A. Nowak (2017): The timetable of evolution. Free access, Science Advances, 3.
Note fig. 1: The evolutionary timetable, showing the course of evolution as inferred from fossils, environmental proxies, and high-resolution geochronology.

! David Jablonski, Michael J. Benton, Robert A. Gastaldo, Charles R. Marshall, and J. John Sepkoski, Jr. (Paleo21): Macroevolution in the 21st Century.

! J.B.C. Jackson and D.H. Erwin (2006): What can we learn about ecology and evolution from the fossil record? PDF file, Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
See also here.

Tonya Johnson, 8th grade Life Science, Pine View School: Evolution. Powerpoint presentation.

G.M. Jones et al. (2023): Fire-driven animal evolution in the Pyrocene. In PDF, Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
See also here.
"... Fire is an important evolutionary force that exerts strong selective pressure on many domains of life on Earth, including animals ..."

Thomas Junker, Faculty of Biology, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (don´t take Thomas Junker for Reinhard Junker, an opponent of evolution sciences): Geschichte der Evolutionstheorie (in German). Provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Thomas Junker, Birgit Klaus and Dennis Wilms, Planet Wissen (German broadcasting service WDR, SWR and BR-alpha; December 2009): Charles Darwin (in German). Videos available via YouTube. Easy to understand information (in German), go to:
Part 1,
Part 2,
Part 3,
! Part 4 (beginning about 7:26: information on creationism and intelligent design),
! Part 5 (information on creationism and intelligent design), and
Part 6.

Kania´s Science Page, Lake Central High School, St. John, IN:
Biology Page. Lecture notes, Powerpoint presentations. See for instance:
The History of Life.
Evolution.

! M. Alan Kazlev, Kheper website, Australia: Evolution, Different Evolutionary Hypotheses, and Evolution. Go to: Biological Evolution.

M. Alan Kazlev and Toby White, Australia:
Palaeos: The trace of Life on Earth. The Palaeos Site is dedicated to providing a detailed and - at least in parts - comprehensive overview of the history of life on Earth. Use the menu bars at the top and (in longer pages) bottom of the page to navigate.
Go to: Chlorobionta: Land Plants.
Evolution of Land Plants.

! C. King (2022):
Exploring Geoscience across the globe. In PDF (42 MB), Excellent!
Provided by The International Geoscience Education Organisation (IGEO). Chapters that may be of interest:
Chapter 3.2 (starting on pdf-page 30): e.g. Relative dating, Absolute dating.
Chapter 4.1.2.2 (starting on pdf-page 56): e.g. Sedimentary processes.
Chapter 4.3 (starting on pdf-page 115): e.g. Atmospheric change.
Chapter 4.4.1 (starting on pdf-page 122): e.g. Evolution.

Dana Krempels, Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL: Evolution and Biodiversity. Lecture Notes.
Available from the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

U. Kutschera (2011): From the scala naturae to the symbiogenetic and dynamic tree of life. Free access, Biology Direct, 6: 33.

! U. Kutschera, Institut für Biologie, Universität Kassel, Germany, and K.J. Niklas, Department of Plant Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY: The modern theory of biological evolution: an expanded synthesis. PDF file, 2004, Naturwissenschaften, 91: 255-276.

! Richard E. Lenski (website by American Institute of Biological Sciences): Evolution: Fact and Theory. About the major patterns of change in nature, how these changes occur and the fossil and genetic evidence of change.

Christian Looschen, (provided by Referate Heimat, Austria): Evolution (in German).

! J. Losos (2013): What Is Evolution? In PDF. The Princeton Guide to Evolution. See also here.

J.B. Losos et al. (2013): Evolutionary Biology for the 21st Century. In PDF, PLoS Biol 11. See also here.

Jonathan B. Losos and D. Luke Mahler (2010): Chapter 15, Adaptive radiation: the interaction of ecological opportunity, adaptation, and speciation. PDF file. Provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

S.G. Lucas (2023): Cladistics and Stratigraphy. Open access, Geosciences, 13.

! MAdLand — Molecular Adaptation to Land: Plant Evolution to Change.
The MAdLand community has made contributions to publicly available data resources for plant (evolutionary) biology and expanded the list of organismal systems accessible for research. Note the statement of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) for the established Priority Programme SPP 2237. Worth checking out:
MAdLand Publications.
The interactive and downloadable Plant Evolution Poster.
Exhibition posters "Grün, Steine, Erde. Unsere Welt im Wandel" (in German, by M. Schreiber and S. Gould).

! C.R. Marshall (2017): Five palaeobiological laws needed to understand the evolution of the living biota. In PDF, Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1.

! Department of Geology, University of Maryland:
A Brief History of Life on Earth.
Lecture notes, Powerpoint presentation. From: Barbara W. Murck and Brian J. Skinner, chapter 15: "Geology Today: Understanding Our Planet: Physical Geology Today".

Andrew MacRae, Talk.Origins Archive: Radiometric Dating and the Geological Time Scale. Circular Reasoning or Reliable Tools? Talk.origins is a Usenet newsgroup devoted to the discussion and debate of biological and physical origins.

Talline Martins and Heidi Hillhouse, Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin: Major Evolutionary Transitions, go to: Transitional Fossils. Powerpoint presentation. See also here.

Gary F. McCracken, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville:
Evolution. Lecture notes.
This expired link is now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! R. Mead et al. (2017): Teaching genetics prior to teaching evolution improves evolution understanding but not acceptance. PLoS Biol., 15: e2002255. See also here.

L. Miao et al. (2024): 1.63-billion-year-old multicellular eukaryotes from the Chuanlinggou Formation in North China Science Advances, 10. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk3208. See also here.
! Note figure 8: Overview of early evolution of the Eukarya along with fossil records.
"... we report cellularly preserved multicellular microfossils (Qingshania magnifica) from the ~1635-million-year-old Chuanlinggou Formation, North China. The fossils consist of large uniseriate, unbranched filaments with cell diameters up to 190 micrometers; spheroidal structures, possibly spores, occur within some cells ..."

The University of Michigan: Global Change, Physical Processes:
Global Change 1 Fall 2011 Schedule . Go to:
! Evolution and Natural Selection.

Keith B. Miller, Department of Geology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS: Taxonomy, Transitional Forms, and the Fossil Record.
This expired link is still available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! D.B. Mills et al. (2022): Eukaryogenesis and oxygen in Earth history. In PDF, Nature Ecology & Evolution, 6: 520–532. See also here.
Note especially: Fig. 3: Correlated fossil, molecular and geochemical timeline.
"... these results temporally, spatially and metabolically decouple the earliest stages of eukaryogenesis from the oxygen content of the surface ocean and atmosphere. Rather than reflecting the ancestral metabolic state, obligate aerobiosis in eukaryotes is most probably derived, having only become globally widespread over the past 1 billion years as atmospheric oxygen approached modern levels. ..."

Sebastian Molnar, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver: Evolution and the Origins of Life. A directory of introductions concerning evolution, with a bias to Plant Biology and Evolution. Excellent examples about how evolution works can be seen from the plant world. Go to: Angiosperm Origins and Evolution, or The Evolution of Polyploidy, and Summary: Polyploid Evolution, Plant Evolution: Overview.

N. Mongiardino Koch et al. (2021): Fossils improve phylogenetic analyses of morphological characters. Open access, Proc. R. Soc. B, 288: 20210044.
"... Fossils provide our only direct window into evolutionary events in the distant past.
[...] Our results show that fossil taxa improve phylogenetic analysis of morphological datasets, even when highly fragmentary.
[...] Fossils help to extract true phylogenetic signals from morphology, an effect that is mediated by both their distinctive morphology and their temporal information, and their incorporation in total-evidence phylogenetics is necessary to faithfully reconstruct evolutionary history ..."

Laurence A. Moran, Dept. of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. See also here. Go to: What Is Evolution? See also here.

! The National Academy of Sciences (NAS):
Teaching about Evolution and THE Nature of Science.
These contributions may help teachers introduce the concepts of evolution, particularly if they are reluctant to teach the topic because of pressures from special-interest groups.
See also here (in PDF).

National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT), Warrenton, VA.
Recommended Resources.
NABT has created a searchable table of online Peer-Recommended Resources. You can filter by category and audience to get just what you need when you need it. Note escecially:
! Evolution.
! Ecology/Environment.
! General Biology.

! National Center for Science Education (NCSE), Oakland, CA.
NCSE defends the integrity of science education against ideological interference. NCSE provides information dedicated to keeping evolution in the science classroom and creationism out. Go to:
! Evolution. The National Center for Science Education is the only national organization devoted to defending the teaching of evolution in public schools. Worth checking out:
The latest Gallup poll on evolution (June 01, 2012).
Journals celebrating the Darwin anniversaries (February 27, 2009).

NATURE, Nature Debates: Andrew Smith, Department of Palaeontology, the Natural History Museum, London: Is the fossil record adequate? This debate introduces the topic and the conflicting viewpoints that surround it.
Now recovered from the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! Karl J. Niklas (2016): Plant Evolution: An Introduction to the History of Life. Book announcement.
Worth checking out: ! Introduction.
See also here (Google books).

! L.R. Novick et al. Depicting the tree of life in museums: guiding principles from psychological research. In PDF, see also here.

! Dennis O'Neil, Behavioral Sciences Department, Palomar College, San Marcos, California: Early Theories of Evolution. 17th-19th Century Discoveries that Led to the Acceptance of Biological Evolution. Go to:
Evidence of Evolution,
Synthetic Theory of Evolution. An introduction to modern evolutionary concepts and theories. See also:
The Basic Principles of Genetics. An introduction to Mendelian Genetics.

! Oxford Bibliographies.
Oxford Bibliographies offers exclusive, authoritative research guides. Combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, this cutting-edge resource directs researchers to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects. Go to:
History of Evolutionary Thought, 1860–1925 (by Garland E. Allen).
Darwinism (by Michael Ruse).
Evolution (by Andrew Berry).
Contemporary Evolution (by Andrew P. Hendr and, Michael T. Kinnison).
Stasis (by Scott Lidgard and Melanie Hopkins).
Mass Extinction (by Paul B. Wignall).
Creationism (by Michael Ruse).

College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Pennsylvania State University.
! The Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth. Lecture notes, Powerpoint presentation.

John Pojeta and Dale A. Springer, The American Geological Institute, (AGI), Alexandria, VA: Evolution and the Fossil Record. This introduction to evolution aims to help the general public gain a better understanding of one of the fundamental underlying concepts of modern science. Four "case study" examples from the fossil record - evolution of vertebrate legs, evolution of birds, evolution of mammals, and evolution of whales - are presented to provide a time perspective for understanding the evolution of life on Earth. There is also a PDF printable version available.

PBS, Alexandria, Virginia (PBS is a private, non-profit media enterprise owned and operated by the US 349 public television stations): Evolution. This online course is intended to deepen the understanding of evolution with extensive content-rich materials, interactive exercises, primary source readings and in depth exploration of scientific concepts. Go to: SESSION 3, What Is the Evidence for Evolution? Including a teachers guide (PDF file).

Mike Pfrender, Evolutionary & Ecological Genomics Lab, University of Notre Dame: Evolutionary Biology. This site contains the Syllabus and Schedule and links to other useful sites. Go to:
! Powerpoints Used in Class. Lecture notes, Powerpoint presentations. Excellent! See especially:
! Evolutionary Biology.
! History and Evidence for Evolution.

P David Polly, Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN: Historical Geology. Life through time. Lecture notes. Topics are paleontology, geologic time, biological evolution, plate tectonics, ancient environments, and climate change, principles of interpreting earth history from geological data, etc. Go to:
Lecture 14: Evolution. Lecture slides (PDF file).

Donald R. Prothero, Department of Geology, Occidental College, Los Angeles:
PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM AT TWENTY: A PALEONTOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE. A historical overview. From Skeptic Magazine vol. 1, no. 3, Fall 1992, pp. 38-47 (The Skeptics Society, Altadena, CA). Comprises chapters like "The Birth of Punk Eek", "Stasis, Landscapes, and Polyhedra", "Species Sorting and Macroevolution", etc. Explore the excellent Bibliography.
These expired links are now available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Quizlet.com study tools:
! Search for Evolution.

Hugh Rance, City University of New York: The Present is the Key to the Past.
An electronic, college level, introductory historical geology textbook. See likewise here.
Websites outdated. Links lead to versions archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

David Rand, Department of Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI: Evolutionary Biology. Lecture notes. See also here.

John Rennie (editor in chief of Scientific American): 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense.
Opponents of evolution want to make a place for creationism by tearing down real science, but their arguments don't hold up.

! Mark Ridley (2004): Evolution (Third edition). In PDF. 786 pages, Blackwell Publishing company. See likewise here (Google books), or there.
Note especially:
Chapter 1.3, "A short history of evolutionary biology", Start at PDF-page 33.
! Part 5, Macroevolution. Chapter 18, "The History of Life", Start at PDF-page 558.
About plant evolution note:
Chapter 3, "The Evidence for Evolution", Start at PDF-page 43.
Chapter 14, "Speciation", Start at PDF-page 416.
Chapter 19, "Evolutionary Genomics", Start at PDF-page 591.

M. Ridley (2003): Evolution (third edition). Book announcement. With book illustrations, an image gallery and downloadable chapters (PDF files), please take notice:
! Chapter 4: Natural Selection and Variation.
! Chapter 13: Species Concepts and Intraspecific Variation.
! Chapter 20: Evolutionary Developmental Biology.
Also worth checking out: Classic Texts. This website provides you with twenty classic texts from the history of evolutionary biology.

M. Romano (2015): Reviewing the term uniformitarianism in modern Earth sciences. In PDF, Earth-Science Reviews, 148: 65–76.
See likewise here.

J.W. Schopf, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, the Molecular Biology Institute, and the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP), University of California, Los Angeles: Cradle of Life: The Discovery of Earth's Earliest Fossils.
Still available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Go to: Chapter 1: Darwin's Dilemma, and Chapter 2: Birth of a New Field of Science. Sample chapters, provided by Princetown University Press. Sample chapters actually have been mounted for professors' convenience in evaluating books for class use.
See also: Just pure chemistry? (by Dagmar Röhrlich, Deutschlandfunk). New discussions about the oldest fossils (in German).

! Science magazine (published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, with assistance of Stanford University's HighWire Press. Go To: Science Collections, Evolution. The link is to a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! J.J. Sepkoski (1998): Rates of speciation in the fossil record. In PDF, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B, 353: 315-326.

! M.U. Smith (2010): Current status of research in teaching and learning evolution: II. Pedagogical issues. In PDF, Science & Education, 19: 539–571.
See also here.

Spektrum.de (Spektrum der Wissenschaft Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Heidelberg, Germany):
"Online Lexika", Biologie:
! Evolution (in German).

! Stanley C. Spencer, SA Associates, Inc., Riverside, CA: Evolution Research News. The academic guide to evolution news and research. This extensive resource site is a research tool for biologists, students, and teachers, covering natural selection, origin of life, phylogenetics, and all other aspects of evolutionary biology, as well as darwinism, creationism, intelligent design (ID), and associated controversies.

! Stephen C. Stearns, Open Yale Courses, Yale University: Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior. This course via html, audio or video presents the principles of evolution, ecology, and behavior. It discusses major ideas and results that should form part of the toolkit of all biologists and educated citizens.

Alycia L. Stigall, Department of Geological Sciences and OHIO Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies (website hosted by the Paleontological Society, Boulder): Tracking Species in Space and Time: Assessing the relationships between paleobiogeography, paleoecology, and macroevolution. In PDF, lecture notes, PS Centennial Short Course. See also here.
Snapshots provided by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

Paul K. Strother, Weston Observatory of Boston College, Department of Geology & Geophysics, Weston: Origin and Evolution of Life on Planet Earth.
This course is being designed to use the www in lieu of a textbook. To use this website most effectively, go to the lecture notes and click on a specific lecture topic. This will bring up lecture notes or a content outline (if available) and additional www links to specific topics covered in the course lecture.
Website now publicly accessible by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

P. Thagard and S. Findlay (2010): Getting to Darwin: Obstacles to Accepting Evolution by Natural Selection. In PDF, Science & Education.

Douglas Theobald, TalkOrigins Archive: Evidences for Macroevolution, Part 1: The Unique Universal Phylogenetic Tree.

Greg Thorn, Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario: Evolution of Plants (Powerpoint presentations). Navigate from here with information from the Syllabus. See e.g. Lecture 16: Evolution of Plants. The evolution of early angiosperms.

Bruce H. Tiffney, UC Santa Barbara: What is Science? Tracking the course of evolution.

! D. Turner and J.C. Havstad (2019): Philosophy of Macroevolution. Open access, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

! T. Vasconcelos et al. (2022): Retiring “cradles” and “museums” of biodiversity. In PDF, The American Naturalist, 199.
See also here.
"... we also argue that the concepts of cradles and museums have outlived their utility in studies of biogeography and macroevolution and should be replaced by discussions of actual processes at play. ..."

School of Science and Engineering, University of Waikato, New Zealand: Evolution for Teaching. Go to: Earth's History and Evolution. Teaching resources.

Allison Welch, Department of Biology, North Carolina A&T State University: Evolution. Lecture notes. This expired links is available through the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine. See also here (in Powerpoint).

! Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Evolutionary biology, for example
Punctuated equilibrium,
Foster's rule. and
Origin of life.
Also worth checking out:
The German Wikipedia: Evolution, e.g.
Punktualismus.

! Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Evolutionary history of plants,
Evolutionary developmental biology, and
Timeline of plant evolution.

Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection: Evolutionary Biology.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
! Timeline of the evolutionary history of life.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Category:Evolution of plants
! Timeline of plant evolution.
Evolutionary history of plants.

Mark V. H. Wilson & Curtis Strobeck, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton: Biology 321. Mechanisms of Evolution. Lecture notes.

Carl R. Woese, Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: On the evolution of cells. PNAS vol. 99 no. 13.

! Steven J. Wolf, Department of Biological Sciences, California State University, Stanislaus: Introduction to Evolution. Lecture notes.
Website outdated. The link is to a version archived by the Internet Archive´s Wayback Machine.

! The Working Group on Teaching Evolution under the Council of the National Academy of Sciences: Teaching About Evolution and the Nature of Science. The Working Group consists of 13 scientists and educators who have been extensively involved in research and education on evolution and related scientific subjects. The group worked closely with teachers, school administrators, state officials, and others in preparing this publication, soliciting suggestions for what would be most useful, and responding to comments on draft materials.










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