Grouping of organisms according to the similar anatomy helps to understand their evolution and how those organisms have being developed over millions of years. Similarly, structures of organisms have developed over years to function better to survive on the earth. Even though some organisms are unicellular, while some are multicelliular, both types of organisms have got particular structure to function that helps to fulfill their needs. Thus, structure and function of the organisms, including humans, portray the incredible creations of the nature (Campbell et al. 2008).
The phylogenic tree reveals the evolutionary history of animals simply. In this phylogenic tree, humans and other animals that are familiar to us are included in phylum chordates. Possessing a dorsal notochord or hollow nerve cord is the significant development of chordates. The nerve cord is a flexible structure and allows the body of the organism to extend. There are other important developments, too, such as metameric arrangement of organs and body regions, perforated pharynx, post-anal tail, large coelom, and ventral heart. These are more advance developments of phylum Chordates compare to the other phyla such as annelids, moluccas and so on. Chordates divide into three main clades such as cephalochordates, urochordates and vertebrates. The subphylum vertebrate shows even more advance development of structure of organisms. It is important to know more about vertebrata since human and other animals such as dogs, cows, birds, and the other most familiar animals are fallen into the subphylum vertebrates (Campbell et al. 2008).
The major development of vertebrata is the replacement of notochord by the segmented vertebrae and possession of cranium, which protect...
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...as Geckos have specific feet that help their locomotion proving the marvel of the nature.
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I chose to study the behaviors of the Spider monkey and the Sifaka. I chose them for a few reasons, one being that Spider monkeys are incredibly adorable and two Sifaka’s remind me of a childhood television show, Zoboomafoo. These two primate groups also struck my attention in class, so this project was a perfect opportunity to dig a little deeper. The behaviors I chose to observe were social interactions and locomotion. The biggest differences I noticed between the two primates were that the Spider monkeys have the prehensile tails and without exerting extra energy is able to engage in a few common locomotion patterns such as quadrupedal, suspensory and bipedalisim. Where as Sifaka’s lack a tail, and remain upright at all times, and the only way they don’t waste energy moving around is to jump through the trees. They both hangout in troops, eat similar things and mainly live up high in the trees-- but Spider monkeys care for their own young for up to a year while the Sifaka’s usually engage in non-maternal infant care.
developed by means of longer legs and arched heels - two traits seen in H. naledi fossils.
As time progressed, Ichthyosaurs transitioned their body like features from a lizard-shaped body plan to a fish-shaped one through the early and middle Triassic periods. In 1927, the first bone fragments were foun...
Thewessen, J. G. M., Williams, E. M., Roe, L. J. & Hussain, S. T. Nature 413, 277-281.
Squamata is put into two suborders: Snakes, and lizards. For example some snakes are Rattlesnakes, Sea Snakes, Vipers, King Cobras, Copperheads, or Coral snakes. Some Lizards are Geckos, Anoles, Iguanas, Horned Lizards, and even Komodo Dragons. You can tell the that the snakes and the lizards have a close relationship by most of their similarities. For instance, both lizards, and snakes shed their skin, both lizards and snakes do not have a connecting jaw. So both have very powerful and very flexible jaw muscles. That’s why snakes and lizards can eat things way bigger than even their head. It is also a fact that leg less lizards are difficult to tell apart from snakes.
There are many anatomical differences between apes that move quadruped & modern humans who walk bipedal. Bipedalism is manifested by several skeletal changes many of which were adaptive confrontations. Upright walking probably emerged as a result of a number of factors working together, since there was a strong selective pressure for it. These factors most likely included a change in environment & a resulting change in food supplies, which created an advantage for hominids that could walk bipedally. The energetic effectiveness has also been noted as a possible cause of the shift to bipedalism. But the problem with the food carrying & energetic model of bipedalism is that early hominids did not have the anatomical adaptations necessary for proficient bipedalism.
The truly unique thing about the Cambrian Explosion was the rapid generation of extremely diverse life forms. Life is generally classified with a system going from broad to specific description. Kingdom, the broadest classification, describes whether a given specimen is plant, animal, fungi, protist, or moneran. The next most specific indicator is phylum. The phyla indicate the body design of a taxonomical specimen. Humans, along with all other species that poses a spinal ...
The Hall of the Vertebrate Origins is another exhibit that shows evidence of evolutionism. The purpose of this hall is to show that all vertebrates had a common ancestor. That common ancestor had a brain case and a backbone. As time progressed, the vertebrates developed limbs that were supported by the backbone, and had watertight eggs.
The cursorial hypothesis postulate that Archaeopteryx were likely fast ground runners and generated thrust for lift off by flapping their wings. The hypothesis is supported by calculations from an aerodynamic model, suggesting that Archaeopteryx could run at 6 metres per second before takeoff (Burgers & Chiappe, 1999). Their bone structure also support that they were fast bipedal ground runners, as Archaeopteryx had a larger hind limb to body proportion and slender limb joints that allowed them to bend their knees with ease (Lucas, 2007). Their fast, bipedal running speed, agility, and ability for flight suggest that Archaeornithes were endothermic, as these energetically demanding tasks would not be possible without the high basal metabolic activity of an endotherm.
Gould, Edwin, George McKay, and David Kirshner. Encyclopedia of Mammals. San Francisco, CA: Fog City, 2003. Print.
All the analysed species of Neotropical primates have both deep and superficial layer irrespective of whether they were claw or nail shaped breaking the older structure proposed by Le Gros Clark that nails do not have a deep layer. Three out of five analysed species of old world monkeys, all apes except hylobates and humans had a deep
He goes on to describe how this common ancestry means that we still have a lot in common with everything on this planet. Thomas says that "we still share genes around, and the resemblance of the enzymes of grasses to those of whales is a family resemblance" (3). Thomas relates to the reader that he has been trying to conceive of the earth itself as a type of organism, "but it is no go" (4). The earth is just too big, too complex for such an analogy. But then it came to him. The earth is most like a single cell (4).
In an article entitled Tyrannosaurus was not a fast runner, those experts, John R. Hutchison and Mariano Garcia provide us with a detailed account of a recent study they did. Their study is described in an article entitled Biomechanics: Walking with tyrannosaurs by Andrew A. Biewener. Biewener states that Hutchinson and Garcia, “introduce a new biomechanical approach,” to the question of dinosaur movement and provide an, “a...
Humans are classified in the Kingdom of Animalia because all animalia share the common bond that they are required to eat. They cannot make there own food and they can move on there own free will through their movements. Humans are in the Phylum of Chordata because all of the Chordates have elongated symmetrical bodies and all begin life with gills to breathe in a liquid environment. Vertebrata is the subphylum where humans are put because they develop a spinal chord that stretches from the head to a paired of sense organs. Vertebrata is the most advanced and numerous subphylum of the chordates. The Class of Humans is Mammalia because they all conceive there young in the reproductive tract of their mother and then after birth their mothers nourish them with milk from their birth. Humans are in the infraclass Eutheria because the mothers of this class carry there young in their uterus before birth and this is made possible because of the umbilical cord and the placenta. The order of Humans is Primates because all of the organisms in the order of Primates share the common bond that they are all upright, breathing, non-self food producing mammals. Humans are in the suborder of Anthropoida. The Superfamily of Hominoidae. The Family of Homiadidae. The Genus of Homo and the species of Sapiens.