Extinction & Rapid Change
Explain how environmental change can outpace a species' ability to adapt through natural selection, leading to extinction, using historical and contemporary examples
Typical age: 12–14 years
“If your child was asked why woolly mammoths no longer exist while other large mammals survived, could they explain what conditions led to the mammoth's extinction — and connect it to what's happening with endangered species today?”
0 / 4 mastered
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Needs first
- The Biodiversity Crisis
KS3 extinction through environmental change provides curriculum grounding for the sixth mass extinction scale and drivers
- How Natural Selection WorksREQUIRED
Extinction is what happens when natural selection cannot produce adaptations fast enough — the mechanism must be understood first
- Species Distribution & Change
Environmental change that causes local extinction and range shifts is the same process that drives full extinction