Thursday, April 30, 2020
Day 45 of Quarantine
Humans and whales are much more alike than we may think. Whales and humans are both mammals amongst other things. Interestingly enough scientist have been able to find an 80 million year old mouse like creature that links the two mammals together.
- An artist rendition of our possible ancestor.
That being said we do share some same bone structures with our seafaring relatives, one might say its Homologous.
Our humorous bone, the dark brown bone on this picture is also shared with whales even though it is a different size. We also share our ulna and radius bones structure. An interesting fact I found out is that the ulna, radius, and humerus bones are all fused together in a whale. Compare that to ours where we have our elbow which can cause us to move our arms more freely. Another major difference between our bones and the whales is the size of our phalanges or finger bones.
I decided to compare the Analogous traits of the shark and the dolphin. They are both aquatic animals however the dolphin is a aquatic mammal and the shark is a fish. A shark can stay underwater indefinitely as they have fins that can filter oxygen out of the water in which they live while dolphins must return to the air to breath as they use their blowhole on top of their head to transfer oxygen into their lungs. They both have fins and tail fins that propel them through the water however they both function in different ways. Using the pictures below we can see just how different they look from one another.
The dolphin's tail or "flukes" are horizontal in nature and go in an up and down motion to push the dolphin through the water. Compare that to the shark which has a caudal fin which is vertical in nature and goes from side to side propelling the large carnivorous fish through the water. Sharks and Dolphins both have fins, more specifically they both have Dorsal fins and they do pretty much the same thing. The dorsal Fin is a stabilizer for both creatures, it helps make sure they don't turn over or upside down while they're swimming. The fins however are built differently.
The illustration to the left shows the difference between the two Dorsal fins. The dolphins is much more curved like a boomerang while the shark is more like a triangle with one straight edge in the rear. So if you're ever at the beach and look into the ocean hopefully this will help you in identifying some cool marine wildlife!
Thanks for tuning in this week!
Some Informational Links for all you cool cats and kittens
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/group/dolphins/
https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/shark
http://www.sussexvt.k12.de.us/science/evolution/evidence%20for%20evolution.htm
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/07/science/when-bats-and-humans-were-one-and-the-same.html
https://www.whalingmuseum.org/whales-today/biology/comparative-anatomy/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The opening prompt for both sections specifically ask for descriptions, not just identifications of your two species. Expand and provide your readers with a better foundation of understanding for these comparisons.
ReplyDeleteHomology: I'm not sure which bone you are talking about in reference to the picture?
You talk about how the structure of the human skeletal arm benefits its function in terms of mobility. How does the structure of the whale forelimb (the "fusion" that you talk about) benefit the function there? Tell the full story. Additionally the size is just related to the size of the two bodies. That's just an issue of scale, not function.
You mention a possible common ancestor, but how do we use this information to confirm that these traits are indeed homologous? Both humans and whales are mammals, so we know that the common ancestor would be an archaic mammal. We also know from the fossil record that early mammals possessed that generalized mammalian limb structure and passed that onto these two descendant species, with changes concurring over time due to differences in the environment (aquatic vs. terrestrial). That is what we need to know to confirm common genetic origin and confirm homology.
Analogy: Much better description here.
Remember that the next section was to focus on the similarities, not so much the differences. Focusing on the similarities in fin structures alone would have achieved that. You get a bit bogged down talking about the differences shark and dolphin tails... so are they really analogous? Interesting information, however.
Missing the section on ancestry? How can we confirm that these traits did not arise from common ancestry but arose independently from each other, which is what we need to know to be sure that these traits are indeed analogous.
Good images.
Cashback bonuses are offered to casino players as a percentage of their losses. For instance, a casino may offer you 10% money back on your losses for the 원 엑스 벳 month, up to as} sure amount|a particular amount|a certain quantity}. These bonuses could be nice in case you have a foul run of luck, and so they're normally out there to VIP and excessive roller casino players.
ReplyDelete