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.
Great comparison on the tails. Although I am not to fond of cats I also did both of my comparisons on the cat. I did not realize that cats used their tail to show some types of emotion. i also did not know they used it to lure food. Very informative I guess you learn something everyday. I also enjoyed the way you compared skeletal structures. They look almost identical in the photos. I guess their closest ancestor would be the worm just like the comparison in my analogous trait post. It is believed to be the closest ancestor to mammals and insects.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comparison for your homologous trait! Keep in mind that for homologous traits, since they have common origin, the focus is to look at the differences produced by different selection pressures. Pointing out similarities is fine, but usually expected given their common source. Also, in the fourth paragraph, did you mean NEW world monkey, as mentioned earlier? Old World Monkeys tend to have tiny stub tails or no tails at all. I'll take the synapsids as a common ancestor but you can go a little more specific. Since they are both mammals, you can go with a mammal as their common ancestor and avoid reptiles all together. Early mammals seemed to possess tails as a rule.
ReplyDeleteThe ancestor of the butterfly and the bird would have been found 100's of millions of years ago. Whether it was winged or not is not crucial since we know from bird evolution that birds developed wings independently after/during their split from reptiles, so they did not inherit them from the common ancestor with the butterflies. Not so sure about the butterflies, but as long as one ancestor developed the trait independently, they qualify as analogs.
I just noticed a couple of things before I read your comment, Prof. Rodriguez. I misread the instructions when I re-read them after writing my post. Originally I had differences in the cat and monkey tail and then changed it to "follow the directions." Same with the butterfly/bird portion. I did mean to say New World monkeys as well. Next time I'll drink coffee so my mind is clearer!
Delete:-) Ah, coffee... the fuel of all dedicated college students!
DeleteThank you for the reply, Stacy.