1a. For my homologous trait questions I chose humans and gorillas due to them both having hands.
1b. The hands are used for very different things in the human and gorilla species. Humans use them for nearly every function of life, yet never walking on them. Gorillas use their hands for constantly walking on and swinging from trees, so mostly transportation. Gorillas have limited use for their hands otherwise, such as eating and picking bugs from one another.
1c. Primitive primates were the common ancestors of the human and the gorilla.
2a. I chose to research an Iguana and and a Piranha. The Iguana lizard as well as the Piranha fish both posses a analogous trait of scales.
2b. The Iguana's scales are used for protection from predators, fighting competitive mates, and camouflage with their surroundings. Piranha scales are used for body armor like protection, distraction from potential predators, and to attract mates. These two species exhibit some differences among each other because one lives on land, as the other lives under water.
2c. Dinosaurs were the common ancestor of these two primitive-like species. The majority of all dinosaurs had scales as well.
I thought about doing one of my examples on humans and gorillas, but thought that it would be too difficult. I am glad someone else was able to do it because I was very interested in what would be used for the homologous trait since they are so similar in many ways. I love that you made it a point to note that gorillas do not walk on their hands because even though it seems rather obvious, many people believe that this is a huge difference between the two species. Also, I found it interesting that you chose to compare the piranha with an iguana. I had no idea that iguanas used their scales for protection as well as piranhas. I always assumed that piranhas were so deadly that they did not need protection. I guess the movies were wrong!
ReplyDeleteGood job on the homology but you might want to check on the ancestor of the lizard and the piranha. While piranha arose only about 15 million years ago, the common ancestor of the piranha and lizard could not have been a dinosaur. It would have been a fish. However you are correct that the scales on the piranha and the lizard are an example of parallel evolution. Fish have fish scales. Reptiles evolved their scales independently after branching off from amphibians, who evolved from fish.
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