1. A) Two different species that have homologous trait is a monkey and human’s opposable thumbs.
B) Both species depend on their opposable thumbs for several tasks. Without opposable thumbs these species would be handicap and have a harder time getting around. When it comes to monkey they use their opposable thumbs to grasp thinks such as tree branches and picking up objects. As for humans, they have a more flexibility for manipulating small objects and they can move their thumbs across their hands much better and farther than any other primates.
C) One of the common ancestors to the human and ape species is the hominid species. Since the earliest hominid species diverged from the ancestor were shared with modern African apes. Five to eight million years ago there have been at least a dozen different species of these humanlike creatures.
2. A) Two species that have analogous traits would be a rhinoceros and an elephant’s horn
B) Both species have a horn like feature on their head. Reason being is that they use these horns to protect them selves from attack of other predators. The rhinoceros and elephant both have a thick layer which helps protect them from attacks as well.
C) As for a common ancestor for a rhinoceros would have to be a hyracodontidae, also known as “running rhinos” showed adaptations for speed, although they do not have a horn feature like the rhinoceros. As for the elephant, they diverged from a common ancestor of the Mammutidae, which includes species termed as mastodons. Unlike the rhinoceros ancestor, the elephant’s ancestor had a horn feature, mastodon being an example.
HI Christian, good job! I chose opposable thumbs for my homologous traits as well, it is a very clear example of a trait from a common ancestor, from a fairly large family of mammals. Also good job on the Analogous traits, I would have never guessed a rhino's ancestor did not have horns and the elephants did, you'd think it would be the other way around.
ReplyDeleteWhats up Christian I loved you article it was geat the info on the rhino and the elephant was very enlighting in some aspects. thankyou for helping to educate us with such a thoughtful presentation.
ReplyDeletechaschatman
Christian,
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the blog post, it was very informing and interesting to read. The homologous trait is understandable and indeed very interesting to get more knowledge on how monkeys use their thumbs compared to humans. Also, with the analogous traits I would have never thought about the trait that Rhinos and elephants share and found interesting like Lauren that rhino's ancestor did not have horns and elephants did. Very informative blog, and fun to read!
Other students have chosen the trait of opposable thumbs as well for their homologous trait and I've critiqued the choice because these traits are in general the same trait. You were very careful, however, to show the differences between the human thumb and the non-human thumb due to different functions and selection pressures. I will allow that. One caution, however: Hominids are not a common ancestor between human apes and non-human apes. Hominids are strictly in the human ancestral line. You have to go back much farther, over 6-7 million years ago, to find the common ancestor between humans and their non-human cousins.
ReplyDeleteGreat image of Barney Simpson, by the way!
Good work on the analogous trait. You talk about individual ancestors, but what about a common ancestor between the two? You don't need to know the specific common ancestor, but did that ancestor possess this trait and pass it onto these two species through their descent lines?