For this homework, I will examine the common traits between Echidnas and Platypus.
1. Homologus traits
a. I believe the homologus traits shared between the echidnas and the playtupus is quite prominent. Echidnas are mole like animals with spines and a long snout that they use to tear through anthills to eat ants. Platypus are semi-aquatic egg laying mammals that also resemble a mole except for the duck bill they use to dig around in pond floors for food.
b. As I stated previously, both the platypus and the echidna species resemble moles in some form. Although platypus have bills and webbed feet and a beaver like tail, they are covered in dense, broad brown fur just like echidnas. Also, the females of both species have poisonous spurs on their hind feet for protection and they are the only mammals to be capable of laying eggs. As for they're appearances, they don't look too similar. Platypus have the for mentioned bill, beaver tail and webbed feet while echidnas have long snouts, small bodies and spines like a porcupine. Besides that, both of these species share many common traits but have diverged in their evolutionary lines. Echidnas are not capable of hunting or diving while swimming and are mostly land dwellers, platypus do not have long snouts to use to eat insects buried in the ground or spines to protect themselves from predators.
c. The Teinolophos and Steropodon species were the main ancestry of the echidna and platypus species. They were semi-aquatic mammals just like the platypus and also had a few characteristics like echidnas. So, in the echidnas evolutionary line, they most have lost the ability to dive in the water some time after the Quaternary period.
d.
2. Analogous traits
a. Echidnas and platypus do have a common ancestry and may have separated during evolution, but they also exhibit common analogous traits that their species developed over time due to their environments.
b. What is a safer environment for something as small and defenseless as mole to live in? Underground, where predators will have a hard time finding the little animal. Echidnas and platypus follow the same strategy like moles. Echidnas use their claws to burrow in the ground for shelter and scavenge for food while doing so. They mostly live in dry environments and in desperate matters, they sometimes steal other animals burrows such as rabbits. Platypus also make burrows but they make them closer by to river banks for their benefits and hid themselves under roots.
c. The Teinolophos was an ancient platypus that passed on most of it's physical and genetic traits to the modern platypus. They may have been semi-aquatic animals, but they also had a link to echidnas as well. So they knew how to burrow and hide themselves from predators and most have lived on land and hunted in water like it's successors. Unfortunately, I was not able to get more information about this creature since there isn't a lot of background behind it because it is a creature that existed millions of years ago. This was the most I could get for it.
d.
Your selection for anaimals were aweomse they're were definitely unique. I never seen a picture of a real life platypus they look so cool,I enjoyed reading your post it was very informative. I really like the first photo you posted it was very helpful.
ReplyDeleteLooking back on my post now, I have made a mistake. I originally thought that I was suppose to examine two species that share homologous and analogous traits, not three. For part 1, it was fine that I did platypus and enchidnas since they were quite similar in genetics and had the same ancestor. For part 2, I should have picked another species to compare to one of the two I previously did. Such as, hedgehogs and echidnas. They may look similar, but they are from different ancestries.
ReplyDeleteI wish I would have read your comment before entering mine. It is possible to just compare two or even three organisms but this is very difficult to do, especially with analogies.
DeleteGood opening descriptions of your homologous species pair.
ReplyDeleteThe assignment asked you to choose one trait that is analogous across the two species. You describe a wide variety of traits and don't focus on one in particular. The idea was to identify one trait that had been inherited by the common ancestor but that varied between the two species due to divergent evolution from different environments and functions.
One trait you could have focused on is their snout structure. You do talk about it but only as part of the larger list of traits and you don't focus on why those differences in the snout exist. Why is the mole-like snout advantageous for the echidna while the bill evolved in the platypus?
Good image to support the issue of ancestry, but without one specific trait in focus here, how do we use this chart to confirm homology? If you use the snout shape as the trait, then the bill of the platypus is the derived trait. The common ancestor didn't have the bill but had the general snout, which evolved and changed in the platypus. The snout shape is homologous.
For your analogous traits:
"but they also exhibit common analogous traits that their species developed over time due to their environments."
Okay... but again, you never really identify the one trait you are claiming to be analogous. Burrowing? Claws? And with regard to ancestry, these organisms are very closely related, genetically, which makes it difficult to locate an analogous trait between them. Nearly everything will be homologous.
Choosing a different pair of organisms who are more distantly related would have made this section of the assignment a little easier to figure out.