Read about Biodiversity Hotspots and find the hotspot nearest to you.
1.In your own words, define a biodiversity hotspot.
2. How many biodiversity hotspots have been identified?
3. Which hotspot is geographically nearest to you?
4. How many endemic insects are in this hotspot?

Use the Species Database to see the threatened species. PubMed and Highwire are indexes to articles published in medical and scientific journals.
5. Check out PubMed and Highwire by looking for an article on one of the endemic mammals or amphibians in this hotspot. Give the article's citation in the proper format. Note that PubMed and Highwire are not the citation.

Go to The Tree of Life (TOL). Click on phylogeny in the text below the tree.
6. Paraphrase into your own words, what is meant by "the phylogeny of organisms"?
7. Click on the root of the tree. What domain are animals in?
8. Follow that domain. Which of the following is most closely related to fungi? Animals, plants, bacteria

Tipulids are common around your home and college.They eat nectar or do not eat at all. Type tipulidae in the TOL search box then follow the link
9. How many wings does it have?
10. This places it in the order: ___________. The hind wings of this order are modified into little gyroscopes. Describe them.
11. Tipulid larvae can be found in streams and lawns. Follow the links on the right of the TOL tipulid page to view the larva. Describe the larva.

Go to California State.
Look up ecological niche in your textbook before continuing.
What is the ecological niche of the California State:
12. Bird
13. Reptile
14. Marine mammal
15. Freshwater fish

The San Francisco Bay Estuary is the nation's second largest and perhaps the most biologically significant estuary on the Pacific Coast. Go to the U.S. Fish and Widlife Service and follow the link to the Flyways page. Audubon California is a helpful reference.

16. How many shorebirds pass through San Francisco Bay each day during winter migration? ______________
How is it possible for such a large number of similar bird species such as avocets, curlews,and stilts to exist in an apparently homogeneous habitat? They all eat aquatic snails, insects, worms, and some small fry of fishes.

American avocet	Long-billed curlew	Black-necked stils

17. Mark the Pacific Flyway route of the Black-necked Stilt, Long-billed Curlew and American Avocet on the map.

18. These birds are found in San Francisco Bay..
Type Birds into the Tree of Life search box and follow the links to identify their family.
a. To what family do they belong?
b. What do they eat?