• A Brief History of Life
  The first tetrapods or four-legged creatures lived during the Devonian Period. How about the first simple plants? Sharks? Insects? Dinosaurs? Get the answers in our illustrated geologic table.

• Diva of the Devonian
  Dr. Jenny Clack, a Reader at the University of Cambridge who specializes in the fish-to-tetrapod transition, describes what it was like to mount an expedition to one of the world's most forbidding regions and to discover fossils there that shook up her field.

• Confessions of a Preparator
  What you should ask for if a genie suddenly appears, why you need to have catalogues of rotten teeth, what you should do if your specimen starts grinning at you, and other valuable tips from crack fossil preparator Sarah Finney.

• Evolution in Action
  For many, the word "mutation" has a pejorative ring to it. But in nature, random mutations are a driving force of evolution. In this activity, change the environment of "living" things and see how random mutations help them survive the changes you bring about.

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© | created February 2002