Transitions: The Evolution of Life

I haven’t picked a site of the week in awhile, so it is time to remedy that neglect. This week I have choosen Explorations in Time.
This is an extremely interesting interactive web site with modules for both students and teachers. I worked my way through the What did T-Rex taste like? module. The module uses phylogeny to answer the question. Along the way you learn about to construct a phylogenetic tree and use it to ask further questions about the history of life. The module is easy to understand and the concepts are explained in a clear and easily understandable fashion - even for those who know nothing about biology. There is also a selection of questions at the end that you can use the data, from your work in the module, to answer. (You will have to work through the module to find out what T-Rex would taste like…)
As mentioned there are a number of other modules to work through at the site. Each is accompanied by a recommended grade level - which is extremely useful. The modules are designed for K-12 but I think several of them could be used in introductory biology classes (for non-majors for example) at the university level.
The page itself is part of University of California, Berkeley
Museum of Paleontology website and they to be commended for coming up with such a great resource!

This week I have chosen The Paleontology Portal as the site of the week. The Paleontology Portal contains a wide variety of resources. For example, there are pages for K-16 teachers and students, fossil galleries and collections (on the collections page you can search collections in Museums and Universities).
Some pics from the site:

Eucrotaphus trigonocephalus

Dromomeryx borealis

Nothrotheriops

And thousands more!
If you ever encounter someone who says we don’t have a lot of fossils - this would be one site to send them to!
Additionally, the site contains hundreds of links:

Mammals or Reptiles for example. Speaking of reptiles here are a few fossils:

Pachyrhinosaurus

Chelydridae

And here are a few amphibians:

Milneria

Trimerorhachis

Also, some fish:

Priscacara liops

Heliobatis radians

There is much, much more at the site. Check it out!

Now that you have read DarkSyd’s excellent post on the evolution of whales here is a website you can visit to explore whale evolution:

Whale Evolution Kiosk and have fun comparing whales, fish and cats.