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This trilogy of short films has been crafted to engage students with memorable examples of the evolutionary process in action. Each film takes students on an adventure—to the deserts of the American Southwest, to the Antarctic, and to East Africa, where they encounter fascinating creatures and pioneering scientists who have revealed how the fittest are made. Produced by award-winning filmmakers Sarah Holt and Bill Anderson, each film illustrates the role of mutation and natural selection in adaptation.
The Making of the Fittest is now available on DVD!
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The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation
The rock pocket mouse is a living example of Darwin’s process of natural selection. Not only is evolution happening right now everywhere around us, but adaptive changes can occur in a population with remarkable speed. This speed is essential if you’re a desert mouse living in an environment where a volcanic eruption can reverse selective pressure in nearly an instant. The film features Dr. Michael Nachman, whose work in the field and in the lab has quantified the selective pressure of predators and identified the genes involved in adaptation. In a complete story, from ecosystem to molecules, pocket mice show us how random changes in the genome can take many paths to the same adaptation—a colored coat that hides them from predators.
Watch Natural Selection and Adaptation (720p HD, 2Mbps, Flash required)
Download HD version: iTunes (409 MB) or Windows Media (323 MB)
Download SD version: iTunes (88 MB) or Windows Media (82 MB)
Click here for teacher resources developed for
Natural Selection and Adapation |
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The Making of the Fittest: The Birth and Death of Genes
For life to survive, it must adapt and readapt to an ever-changing Earth. The discovery of the Antarctic icefish has provided a stunning example of adaptation in an environment both hostile and abundant, where the birth of new genes and the death of old ones have played crucial roles. Researchers Bill Detrich, Christina Cheng, and Art DeVries have pinpointed the genetic changes that enable icefish to thrive without hemoglobin and red blood cells and to avoid freezing in the icy ocean.
Watch The Birth and Death of Genes (720p HD, 2Mbps, Flash required)
Download HD version: iTunes (507 MB) or Windows Media (408 MB)
Download SD version: iTunes (112 MB) or Windows Media (104 MB)
Click here for teacher resources developed for
The Birth and Death of Genes |
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The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection in Humans
In some parts of the world, there is an intimate connection between the infectious parasitic disease malaria and the genetic disease sickle cell anemia. A keenly observant young man named Tony Allison, working in East Africa in the 1950s, first noticed the connection and assembled the pieces of the puzzle. His story stands as the first and one of the best understood examples of natural selection, where the selective agent, adaptive mutation, and molecule involved are known—and this is in humans to boot. The protection against malaria by the sickle-cell mutation shows how evolution does not necessarily result in the best solution imaginable but proceeds by whatever means are available.
Watch Natural Selection in Humans (720p HD, 2Mbps, Flash required)
Download HD version: iTunes (521 MB) or Windows Media (436 MB)
Download SD version: iTunes (119 MB) or Windows Media (111 MB)
Click here for teacher resources developed for
Natural Selection in Humans
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iTunes versions of the movies are M4V files, playable via iTunes on both Mac OS or Windows, and are also playable by iOS devices like Apple TV, iPad, and iPhone/iPod touch.
Windows Media versions of the movies are WMV files, playable with Windows Media Player.
To download the movies:
In Internet Explorer right-click the "Download movie" link and select "Save Target As..."
In Firefox and Chrome right-click and select "Save Link As..."
In Safari right-click and select "Download Linked File As..."
On the Macintosh, holding the Control key while clicking is the same as right-clicking.
There are also classroom activities available for The Making of the Fittest film series.
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