Mississippi Science MAQ.6.2
The Standard
- MAQ.6
- Students will investigate characteristics of aquatic invertebrates.
Identify characteristics that are shared and derived using graphical representations of animal evolution (i.e., cladograms and phylogenetic trees) and develop cladograms and phylogenetic trees.
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Invertebrate Consumers
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students use traits to work out which marine animals share a more recent ancestor. They mark where traits first appear on a branching diagram, then draw a tree from a trait list.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can place a sponge, jellyfish, marine flatworm, and crab on a tree using true tissues, bilateral symmetry, and jointed appendages. They can trace branches to explain why the flatworm and crab are the closest pair on that tree.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat the sponge at the tip of a branch as the crab’s ancestor. They may also read the tree as a ladder from simple to advanced, or judge relatedness by how close the tips look on the page.
How to Assess It
- Give students four cards: sponge, no true tissues; jellyfish, true tissues; marine flatworm, bilateral symmetry; crab, jointed appendages. Ask them to draw a four-tip tree, label where each trait first appears, and circle the closest pair.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Have students arrange sponge, jellyfish, marine flatworm, and crab picture cards on a paper tree, then add trait labels to its branches.
Ask: “Is the sponge at the tip of a branch the crab’s ancestor?” Have students trace branches to explain their answers.
Give pairs three trees with branches rotated; have them find which trees show the same relationships and point to the matching nodes.
Use tide pool photos of anemones, clams, and crabs; have students choose the closest pair using symmetry and jointed appendages.
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Printable MAQ.6.2 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.
- ZOO.1.4
Construct cladograms or phylogenetic trees to show the evolutionary branches of an ancestral species and its descendants.
- BIO.4.3
Analyze cladograms/phylogenetic trees to illustrate relatedness between species.
- MAQ.5.3
Recognize characteristics that are shared and derived using graphical representations of primary-producer evolution and develop cladograms/phylogenetic trees.
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