From Chordates to Mammals: Exploring the Tree of Life

After you reach the chordate branch on the animal Tree-of-Life, where to next? This set of branching diagrams continues the story. The diagrams show phylogenies, aka evolutionary tree diagrams, for organisms that are currently living. They take the branches out from chordates to mammal orders and beyond for four of the major orders. Once children have become familiar with these lineages of life, they will have a greater appreciation of the diversity of mammals and of our place in the living world. This set consists of 13 letter-sized pages of branching diagrams, 13 pages of blank branches, 102 text cards for children, and an 18-page booklet for teachers. The latter includes a lesson to introduce children to the branches of mammals and suggestions for children’s learning activities to follow. If you print two copies of the complete branching diagrams, you can leave one whole to use in lessons and cut one apart for labels and pictures to place on the blank branches. Total page count for