NOVA Education
NOVA Evolution Lab Interactive Lesson Mission 4

MISSION 4 — Biogeography: Where Life Lives

Life does not stay in one place. Organisms spread out and move around. Plant seeds and fungal spores are carried by the wind and animals cover great distances in search of food. And bacteria? Well, bacteria are just everywhere. But it isn’t just organisms that move—the planet’s tectonic plates move, too. The goal of biogeography is to piece together all of these movements to discover and explain the past and present distribution of life on Earth. It’s a big puzzle with as many moving pieces as there are species that have ever lived.

Watch the video and answer questions 1– 4 below.

Keyboard Shortcut Action
Space Pause/Play video playback
Enter Pause/Play video playback
m Mute/Unmute video volume
Up and Down arrows Increase and decrease volume by 10%
Right and Left arrows Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds
0-9 Fast seek to x% of the video.
f Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key.
c Press c to toggle captions on or off

1. How do organisms come to live on newly formed volcanic islands? 

2-3. Click on the button below to answer questions 2-3. Remember to refer to the video if you are not sure of your answers.

Use the submit button to enter this choice.

Use the next button to continue.

Select the finish button to finish the quiz.

4. Explain how a close relative of an African plant came to be living in the tropical Pacific.