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  2. Homology (biology) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homology_(biology)

    In biology, homology is similarity in anatomical structures or genes between organisms of different taxa due to shared ancestry, regardless of current functional differences. Evolutionary biology explains homologous structures as retained heredity from a common ancestor after having been subjected to adaptive modifications for different ...

  3. List of examples of convergent evolution - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_examples_of...

    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]

  4. Convergent evolution - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution

    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.

  5. Comparative anatomy - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_anatomy

    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 ...

  6. Sequence homology - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequence_homology

    Two organisms that are very closely related are likely to display very similar DNA sequences between two orthologs. Conversely, an organism that is further removed evolutionarily from another organism is likely to display a greater divergence in the sequence of the orthologs being studied. [citation needed]

  7. Glossary of genetics and evolutionary biology - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_genetics_and...

    analogous structures A set of morphological structures in different organisms which have similar form or function but were not present in the organisms' last common ancestor. The cladistic term for the same phenomenon is homoplasy. ancestor ancestral trait. Also called an ancestral character, primitive character, or primitive trait.

  8. Evidence of common descent - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence_of_common_descent

    Higher organisms have evolved additional protein subunits, largely affecting the regulation and protein-protein interaction of the core. Other overarching similarities between all lineages of extant organisms, such as DNA, RNA, amino acids, and the lipid bilayer, give support to the theory of common

  9. Tree of life (biology) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life_(biology)

    The prokaryotes (the two domains of bacteria and archaea) and certain animals such as bdelloid rotifers [36] freely pass genetic information between unrelated organisms by horizontal gene transfer. Recombination, gene loss, duplication, and gene creation are a few of the processes by which genes can be transferred within and between bacterial ...