Evidence of Evolution

The life forms on our planet have been changing over time for more than three and a half billion years.
Click on image for full size
Courtesy of NASA

Listen to a podcast about human evolution

Listen to a podcast about whale evolution

Evolution Hits the Beach

Listen to a podcast about bird wing evolution

Changing Planet: Adaptation of Species Video and Classroom Activity

Changing Planet: Changing Mosquito Genes Classroom Activity and Video

Welcome to the Evidence of Evolution Exploratour!

This Windows to the Universe Exploratour examines the scientific evidence of biological evolution. Take the tour to travel through 10 web pages about the scientific theory that explains how and why living things change over many generations.

Exploratours have a special format. To travel through the tour, use the navigation above. To move to the next page of the tour, click the "Forward" arrow. To move backwards through the tour, click the "Back" arrow. To choose a different tour, click the blue button called "Go on another tour"!

Let's start exploring! Click the "Forward" arrow above!

Last modified October 15, 2011 by Jennifer Bergman.

You might also be interested in:

Traveling Nitrogen Classroom Activity Kit

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

Did Life First Develop in a Mica Sandwich at the Bottom of a Primordial Sea?

Earth's first life form may have developed between the layers of a chunk of mica sitting like a multilayered sandwich in primordial waters, according to a new hypothesis. The mica hypothesis, which was...more

Species Have Come and Gone at Different Rates than Previously Believed

Diversity among the ancestors of such marine creatures as clams, sand dollars and lobsters showed only a modest rise beginning 144 million years ago with no clear trend afterwards, according to an international...more

The Mystery of Mass Extinction is No Longer Murky

If you are curious about Earth's periodic mass extinction events such as the sudden demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, you might consider crashing asteroids and sky-darkening super volcanoes...more

Details of Evolutionary Transition from Fish to Land Animals Revealed

New research has provided the first detailed look at the internal head skeleton of Tiktaalik roseae, the 375-million-year-old fossil animal that represents an important intermediate step in the evolutionary...more

Fish Adapting to a Changing World

The stickleback fish, Gasterosteus aculeatus, is one of the most thoroughly studied organisms in the wild, and has been a particularly useful model for understanding variation in physiology, behavior,...more

Prehistoric Fossil Snake is Largest on Record

Scientists have recovered fossils from a 60-million-year-old South American snake whose length and weight might make today's anacondas seem like garter snakes. Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis by its discoverers,...more

Scientists Find Signs of “Snowball Earth” Amidst Early Animal Evolution

Geologists have found evidence that sea ice extended to the equator 716.5 million years ago, bringing new precision to a "snowball Earth" event long suspected to have taken place around that time. Funded...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA