Mississippi Science L.8.4B.4
The Standard
- L.8.4B
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how similarities and differences among living and extinct species provide evidence that changes have occurred in organisms over time and that similarity of characteristics provides evidence of common ancestry.
Analyze displays of pictorial data to compare and contrast embryological and homologous/analogous structures across multiple species to identify evolutionary relationships.
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Adaptation and Diversity
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students compare embryo pictures and body-part diagrams from several species. They use visible features to decide which structures were inherited from a common ancestor and which only have similar jobs.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student points to the matching bones in a human arm and bat wing as evidence of a shared limb pattern. They explain that a butterfly wing serves the same purpose as a bat wing but has a different structure.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may call two structures related just because they do the same job. They may also think embryos of different species look identical, or that one living species grew into another.
How to Assess It
- Show diagrams of a human arm, bat wing, and butterfly wing. Ask: Which two show a shared limb pattern? Circle two matching parts and explain why the third is different.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs printed embryo and limb diagrams for humans, bats, and whales; have them circle matching features and sort the pictures.
Show chick and mouse embryos at a similar stage; ask students to write two visible similarities and one difference.
Play a diagram-matching game: students pair human arms, bat wings, and whale flippers by bone pattern, then explain each match.
Use a butterfly wing and bat wing photo to make a museum label explaining why both fly but their wings differ.
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Printable L.8.4B.4 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- MAQ.7.2
Identify characteristics that are shared and derived using graphical representations of animal evolution and develop cladograms/phylogenetic trees.
- BIO.4.3
Analyze cladograms/phylogenetic trees to illustrate relatedness between species.
- BIO.4.2
Evaluate empirical evidence of common ancestry and biological evolution, including comparative anatomy (e.g., homologous structures and embryological similariti...
- MAQ.6.2
Identify characteristics that are shared and derived using graphical representations of animal evolution (i.e., cladograms and phylogenetic trees) and develop c...
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