This year MMM is celebrating Libraries
Rounds 1-3 the “battle” occurs in the better seeded species home ecology- they have home court advantage. Rounds 4-6, the battle takes place in a randomized location announced at the start of the battle.
RULES of the MMM Game Universe
✩ Combatants are arranged in a four division, single elimination tournament.
✩ Combatants have assigned seeds 1-16, with “1” being the best-ranked combatant within the Division and “16” typically the worst-ranked combatant.
✩ A single individual at peak “combat” condition represents their species as combatant- for some species this may be a male or female, depending on the natural history of the species.
✩ Keep season in mind- March is spring in the Northern hemisphere & Autumn in the Southern hemisphere. Combatant condition & priorities may vary with season, depending on the natural history.
✩ The combatants are considered as encountering each other on a field of battle:
⭑ Rounds 1, 2, & 3 the better/lower seeded combatant has Home Habitat Advantage. The worse-seeded combatant is the visitor, unless the combatants live in the same habitat.
⭑ Rounds 4, 5, & 6 (the Elite Trait, the Final Roar, & the Championship), the field of battle is randomized among 4 possible habitats:
- OCEAN REEF: a ridge of material at or near the surface of the ocean, natural reefs are typically coral.
- SWAMP: an area of land permanently saturated, or filled, with water with lots of trees.
- DESERT: an area that receives very little precipitation.
- EUCALYPT FOREST: Forests dominated by ~800 species in the three genera Angophora, Corymbia and Eucalyptus. Eucalypts evolved from rainforest ancestors, adapting to an environment in which drought, nutrient-poor soils and fire were increasingly common.
✩ To “win” a battle, a combatant has to be holding the field of battle at the end of the encounter. Withdrawing from the encounter, fleeing, or total knock out (carnage) count as a defeat.
Directions for Science worksheets.
Link to research combatants. - Use these links
Round 1 – Physical Traits
Students summarize physical traits of the animals announced by the battle narrators,
especially those that played a role in the outcome.
Round 2 – Behavioral Adaptations
Students describe key behavioral adaptations of the species announced by the battle
narrators, especially behaviors that caused the battle outcome.
Round 3 Sweet 16 –Human Impacts
Students look up IUCN conservation info about the winner of each battle, summarizing
conservation status, threats, and describe current or possible conservation efforts.
Round 4 Elite Trait – Environmental impacts
In round 4, the habitats that animals will battle in will be chosen at random from 4 different ecologies: (1) Geothermal Wetland (2) Sea Cave (3) Sky Island or (4) Temperate Broadleaf Forest. Students summarize how the environment did or could have played a role in the battle outcome by favoring or disfavoring one or both combatants in each battle.
Round 5 – Final Roar - Evolutionary history
Students look up when combatants in each match-up last shared a common ancestor using TimeTree.org.
Round 6 – Final Championship
Students compare and contrast the #2025MMM Champion with the species they had thought would win the tournament, arguing from new evidence that occurred during the tournament play-by-play or, if their prediction was the Champion, identifying new and/or key information that explained how the animal won.
Animal Diversity Web for final assignment