The domestic cat is one of my favorite animals so it was a natural choice for me. Cats are one of our four footed friends and they have luxurious long tails that little children love to pull much the cat's chagrin. Almost 10 percent of a cat's bones are in it's tail and the domestic cat is the only cat t species to be able to walk with its tail erect. Cats use their tails to display their emotion, aid in hunting and for balance.

The New World classification of monkey also has an impressive prehensile tail that it uses to maintain balance, gather food and hold on to trees while it uses its hands for eating. New World monkeys are found in central and South America.

Both of these creatures have similar looking tails and they use them for similar reasons. They uses their tails for balance; a cat flicks its tail as a lure for food as the monkey uses its tail to pull food from trees so both use their tails to "gather" food.


Old World monkeys have 20 to 33 bones in their tails compared to a cat's roughly 20 bones. Both animals' tails have muscles in them that each one uses to manipulate movement however the cat's tail is not prehensile.

The monkey's and cat's prehistoric ancestors were the tailed synapsids.











Butterflies have beautifully patterned wings that they use to fly. Birds also have beautiful wings that they use to fly.

Both of these creatures use their wings to fly and both would die without the use of their wings. It is their mode of transportation and a way to remain safe from predators who cannot go where they can. The wings are similar in use and shape but are constructed completely differently. The birds wings are formed with bones, feathers and have veins that carry blood through the flesh. Butterfly wings do not have bones but are kept rigid mostly through fluid pressure. I have been researching the origins of both birds and butterflies and have not found any conclusive name of the shared ancestor between the two. I did find that it is believed the ancestor did not have wings, however, due to the fact that wings were evolved due to environment and were developed much later than when that common ancestor existed.

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The Man Who Provided the Basis for Darwin’s Theory of Evolution

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck is the person we can thank for the terms, biology and invertebrates. His contributions to science are numerous.  He founded the dichotomous keys to assist in classifying plant life in France. The graphic use of the branching of a tree to explain how things are grouped and related comes from the works of Lamarck. He presented the idea that living things become more complex over time and was the earliest to publish his theories on evolution. He published many works on botany, meteorology, zoology, paleontology, geology and chemistry. Lamarck discovered that environment plays an important role in development and ultimately this is what made the greatest influence on Charles Darwin. His ideas that species evolve directly relative to their environment were true even though his mechanism was faulty. 

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2830902433.html

Some of the key points in the logical explanation for Evolution that were influenced by Lamarck are as follows:

If the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or adaptive to that environment will be different.

Lamarck discovered that a seed, when germinated in two different environments develops into two apparently different species. This was one of the most important discoveries to prove that environment plays a significant role in development and Darwin pursued this idea even further into his own ideas, which eventually became natural selection.

In order for traits to evolve and change, they MUST be heritable.

Lamarck believed that an animal could change within its lifetime which we know to be incorrect; however, he also believed that the change would be passed on to the offspring. This idea was the foundation for how traits are passed on and while he didn’t understand why, Darwin knew that they would be passed on just as Lamarck suggested they would be.

Individuals do not evolve. Populations do.

Lamarck identified that in order to survive the animal must be able to access the resources available to it. In order to this, they must adapt in some cases to reach these resources.  While he was incorrect on how this occurred over time. It gave Darwin the basis for the idea that living things must adapt in order to survive.

Without the influence of Lamarck, Darwin might have come up with his hypothesis and theories but it would have taken him much longer. These ideas were the first to be published and while some of the information would be proven false, they are what gave Darwin some of his first ideas and are the basis for everything Darwin would later believe.

Darwin, the Church and On the Origin of Species

Ideas on evolution and new theories were considered to be anti-Christian and heretical. Philosophers and mathematicians had already been killed in light of their controversial opinions. His wife was concerned over his ideas as they contradicted her religious beliefs as well.  Darwin was fearful of publishing his ideas under such circumstances.  When his work, on the Origin of Species was published it was not well received by the public and it still originates some very strong debates to this day.