Urban evolution

High school (ages 12+)
Environment & Earth

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/urban-evolution

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific name?N/A (Concept)
2. What is the primary environment?Urban and suburban areas
3. How do animals get new skills in cities?Animals get new skills through natural selection, which favors those that can handle heat, pollution, or noisy streets. They may also change their behavior, like singing at different times.
4. Why do birds sing higher in cities?Birds sing higher or at different times to avoid being drowned out by traffic noise. This helps them communicate better in noisy neighborhoods.

Anthropogenic Pressures: Environmental changes and stresses caused directly or indirectly by human activities.
Directional Selection: A mode of natural selection where an extreme phenotype is favored over other phenotypes.
Convergent Evolution: The independent evolution of similar features in species of different lineages.
Acoustic Masking: The phenomenon where a desired signal is made unintelligible by the presence of other sounds.