Carnivora
1. Species that walk the planet are in question if they are related to the same ancestor based on their homologous traits. One trait is the wolf and the fox share the same body type, they both are covered in fur and walk on all fours and have a tail. Even though they differ in these qualities they are still functioned the same. For example the fox has a bushy tail while the wolf has a thin tail but they both are used for communication and balance. The fur on their backs might have different variations and color but they both have an undercoat used to keep them warm.
2. Wolves and foxes also share a great amount of differences including their size. A wolf weighs about 150lb while a fox is only weighing about 30lb. As a result the fox can only hunt smaller mammals and the wolf can hunt larger. The fox uses its small snout to hunt small rodents using the "mousing pounce" method while wolves use theirs to hunt larger game. Foxes are known to live all over the world except the antarctic and wolves are known to live only on the northern hemisphere.
3. The common ancestor to these Carnivora is the Miacid, living in North America 65-33,9 million years ago. This ancestor as seen below had a long body walking on all fours with a long tail sharing the same homologous features as the wolf and the fox.
These species both swim under the ocean and breathe under water, their ancestor would have had the same analogous trait because they require these important fins/tails to breathe. Both species live quite a long time 50-100 years, Throughout their lives they have learned to adapt from different types of water including warm, cold, from salt to fresh water. These species are not the same type but have the same attributes that they need to survive.
The Whale is an aquatic mammal and a shark is a fish, they are not the same type of species. The species having the same analogous traits is because of the environmental changes that has occurred trying to survive in the ocean and what creates these genetic changes.
I also had a similar comparison. Mine was between sharks and dolphins. My analogous trait for them was their tails. While they function a little differently they are still similar in the fact that their tails keep them alive. I also like how you added that these species have had to learn to adapt to different water temperatures. This is important because these species might only have offspring in certain water temperatures.
ReplyDeleteHomology: Good opening description.
ReplyDeleteWhat you are comparing here is a behavior, which is difficult to track through the fossil record to confirm ancestry (to show that it is actually a homologous trait). To be homologous, the trait has to be shared from a common ancestor but evolved differences over time. So what is the "shared trait' here? And how do we see it in the fossil record?
I'm struggling to think up a possible example of a homologous traits shared by these two organisms. The closest I could consider was paw shape between the wolves and another furry organism, the bear. Wolves have the compact pad structure of the foot for running and stability. The bear has a longer, flatter foot structure, better for holding up it's bulk and climbing trees, but not so good for speed over long distances. The foot structure would be visible in the fossil record, so you could confirm that the general structure was inherited from a common mammalian ancestor.
Ancestry: No doubt these organisms are genetically related but we don't have traits arising from divergent evolution with differences in structure and function to trace through this ancestry. See my discussion of the wolf/bear comparison as an example of what I was looking for (above).
Analogy: Good opening description.
"These species both swim under the ocean and breathe under water"
No, they do not. Yes, they both swim under water, but only sharks "breath under water". Whales, like all aquatic mammals, must breath air and surface frequently to expel CO2 and take in more oxygen.
But the fins are a valid example. It would have been appropriate to focus on those traits without wandering into the discussion of breathing. You don't talk about this much, but the fin structures ARE analogous traits.
Ancestry: "The species having the same analogous traits is because of the environmental changes that has occurred trying to survive in the ocean and what creates these genetic changes."
This generally describe analogous traits, but doesn't explain how we know the trait in question is analogous. In part, that is because you haven't identified one trait to explore here.
If you were focusing on the fin structures of these organisms, here is how you would have used ancestry to confirm analogy: The common ancestor of the whale and shark is an archaic fish, who did possess these fin structures and also passed that trait onto extant shark species. So the question is, did the whale also inherit it's fin from that common ancestor? Whale "fins" evolved after whales split off from terrestrial mammals, i.e., long after the split with ancient sharks. This provides us with the evidence we need to confirm that this trait did evolve independently in at least one of these organisms, making these traits analogous.
Good images.
I agree with you that the foxes and wolves have similar body structure. I like how you were specific on geographical locations because it is essential to know where the species are from to know their origin. I also like how you incorporated the type of environment that they live in, particularly the adaptation of temperature change. This is important for the species to survive, which is to adapt to the environment they live in.
ReplyDelete