Evolutionary Developmental Biology: This cutting-edge area of biological research is enjoying much attention, and providing dramatic, visual confirmation of evolution. More importantly, the work is bringing clear, compelling evidence for macroevolution. Every knowledgeable biology teacher who recognizes the reality of evolution will want to share this exciting new material with students. Vivid teaching ideas and materials are being developed, and I would encourage you to seek them out and use them in your classes. Don't wait for this to appear in textbooks.
Look below for more information on Evo-Devo in... the NABT Convention in Albuquerque, ABT Guest Editorial, Summer Reading, Whale Evolution, and other resources.

NABT CONVENTION: For example, at the upcoming NABT convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 11-14, 2006, Professor James Platt of the University of Denver will be doing a presentation on evo-devo with ideas and materials for including this dynamic material in your teaching. This is looking like a most impressive conference, and there will be numerous sessions on various aspects of teaching evolution. If possible, make the effort to go, and I strongly urge you to attend Dr. Platt's session. Afterwards, please share with us at ENSIweb any new teaching suggestions/lessons that you found or developed on this topic.

GUEST EDITORIAL: If you missed Dr. Platt's Guest Editorial in The American Biology Teacher journal of January 2006, be sure to read it. He has kindly allowed us to post it here for your convenience. In it, he shares vignettes of some major morphological changes in stickleback fishes that have not only been observed, but whose molecular and genetic mechanisms have been revealed. If I were still teaching, I would definitely use visual material from the source he links to, along with other material from the new HHMI DVD on Evolution, lesson ideas from the PBS Evolution resources and the Teachers' Domain site. I would like very much to add a lesson or two to the ENSI site that utilizes evo-devo material, so if you have one, discover one, or develop one that works well, please share it with us.

SUMMER READING: An excellent introduction to evo-devo, readable and conveniently available, is Sean B. Carroll's 2005 book Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Highly recommended for your Summer read! As you read, be prepared to jot down ideas for how and where you could incorporate the material into your Biology course. If you develop a lesson on this subject to use in your classes, please share it with us.

WHALE EVOLUTION: A recent application of evo-devo to a subject always fascinating to kids:
How ancient whales lost their legs, got sleek and conquered the oceans: an Evo-Devo solution.
This is a beautiful blending of paleontology, developmental morphology and the blossoming field of evolutionary developmental biology, and an excellent example of MILEs: multiple independent lines of evidence, confirming the tetrapod origin of whales. A recent study, using porpoise embryos, has revealed how a mutation in the gene for "sonic hedgehog" (shh), a developmental signaling protein necessary for normal limb development, resulted in the loss of the hind limbs of early whales about 35 million years ago. Fossils have shown the gradual reduction in hind limbs prior to that time, over a 15 million year period, but the shh mutation appears to be the final step bringing the full sleekness that we see in cetaceans today. Very clever science.

This 2006 PNAS report, by whale evolution veteran JGM Thewissen, et al., is nicely summarized (with full citation to the original) by PZ Myers on the Pharyngula site at: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/05/no_genes_were_lost_in_the_maki.php
It includes an excellent illustrated cladogram (from the original report) showing the gradual hind limb reduction in ancestral whales, and the corresponding changes in regulatory genes. If you are one of the many teachers using our Becoming Whales lesson, be sure to share this latest footnote with your students. If you don't, you should!