Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The three small bones in the middle ear of mammals including humans, the malleus, incus, and stapes, are today used to transmit sound from the eardrum to the inner ear. The malleus and incus develop in the embryo from structures that form jaw bones (the quadrate and the articular) in lizards, and in fossils of lizard-like ancestors of mammals.
They may or may not perform the same function. An example is the forelimb structure shared by cats and whales. Analogous structures - structures similar in different organisms because, in convergent evolution, they evolved in a similar environment, rather than were inherited from a recent common ancestor. They usually serve the same or similar ...
The statocyst is a balance sensory receptor independently found in different organisms like: some aquatic invertebrates, including bivalves, [206] cnidarians, [207] echinoderms, [208] cephalopods, [209] and crustaceans. [210] Also found in single-cell ciliate. A similar structure is also found in Xenoturbella. [211]
Homologous structures in the external genitalia. This list of related male and female reproductive organs shows how the male and female reproductive organs and the development of the reproductive system are related, sharing a common developmental path. This makes them biological homologues. These organs differentiate into the respective sex ...
Functionally similar features that have arisen through convergent evolution are analogous, whereas homologous structures or traits have a common origin but can have dissimilar functions. Bird, bat, and pterosaur wings are analogous structures, but their forelimbs are homologous, sharing an ancestral state despite serving different functions.
Skeletons of a human and an elephant. Comparative foot morphology involves comparing the form of distal limb structures of a variety of terrestrial vertebrates.Understanding the role that the foot plays for each type of organism must take account of the differences in body type, foot shape, arrangement of structures, loading conditions and other variables.
Convergent evolution is the development of analogous structures that occurs in different species as a result of those two species facing similar environmental pressures and adapting in similar ways. It differs from divergent evolution as the species involved do not descend from a closely related common ancestor and the traits accumulated are ...
Human angiogenin diverged from ribonuclease, for example, and while the two paralogs remain similar in tertiary structure, their functions within the cell are now quite different. [ citation needed ] It is often asserted that orthologs are more functionally similar than paralogs of similar divergence, but several papers have challenged this notion.