Student with microscope

 Students

Students

At Shape of Life we believe PLAY is the best form of science research. We encourage everyone to lift rocks and get messy. A whole world opens up from our curiosity.

Handout Material

  • Handout
    Our Chordate Family Tree
    Students explore the evolution of the phylum Chordata by constructing a "family tree" -- a diagram of evolutionary traits and animals 

    Full Handout Material

All Student Handout Materials

  • Top of the Tree of Life with Species
    Factsheet
    Cambrian Explosion
    The Cambrian Explosion was a burst of animal evolution that occurred in the ocean about 540 million years ago.

    Download Factsheet

All Factsheets

  • Earth from space
    Reading
    Cambrian Explosion: A BIG BANG in the Evolution of Animals
    For most of Earth's early history, there simply was no fossil record. Only recently have we come to discover otherwise: Life is virtually as old as the planet itself, and even the most ancient sedimentary rocks have yielded fossilized remains of primitive forms of life.

    Download Reading

All Readings

Creature

Deep Sea Brittle Star

Important in the diverse deep-sea habitats where they live, brittle stars are ecosystem engineers, stirring-up sediment as they dig, recycling nutrients on the seafloor in the process. And they’re important prey of fish and various invertebrates including crabs and sea stars.

More Creatures

Deep Sea Brittle Star

Did you Know?

High Seas Treaty To Protect Ocean Biodiversity

BIG NEWS: Nations came together to agree on the first-ever treaty to protect the biodiversity of the high seas.

More Did You Know?

fogbow

Scientist

Rich Mooi, Curator of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology California Academy of Sciences

Rich studies the evolution of echinoderms. The oldest echinoderm fossils date back to the Cambrian period, about 550 million years ago.

More Scientists

Rich Mooi