a. The dolphin and the flying squirrel both posses the trait echolocation and are both in the class mammalia.
b. The dolphin is a marine mammal that uses echolocation under water to detect other animals/objects and to locate their food source. The flying squirrel also uses echolocation for similar reasons except they are land creatures and are able to glide between trees. Although both animals are mammals and are able to use echolocation, their differences are quite clear. One can only live in water while the other glides through trees on land.
c. Both dolphins and the flying squirrel are descendants of land-living mammals but that ancestor did not posses the trait of echolocation.
2. Analogous trait:
a. The bat and the oilbird are from two different animal classes but both can use echolocation.
b. The bat is commonly mistaken as being part of the bird family because it has wings. Bats have webbed wings and do not flap their entire forelimbs like birds do. Their arms are extremely long and covered with a thin membrane. The bats and oilbirds use their echolocation to detect food and to navigate around objects. Since they're both nocturnal and hunt for food at night, they use their echolocation to navigate in the darkness in search for food. Both have the trait of echolocation but are from two different classes. The bat is a mammal while the oilbird is a bird. These two animals can be mistakenly put in the same class due to their ability to fly.
c. The common ancestor of these two species did not posses the trait echolocation. Their ancestor was a land-living animal and did not have the trait.
That's very interesting! I did not know that flying squirrels have the trait of echolocation. I have only heard about it when talked about marine animals. Thanks for the info!
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the homologous trait of echolocation: You stated that the common ancestor of the dolphin and the flying squirrel was a land living mammal who did not have the trait of echolocation. Wouldn't that mean echolocation in these two species would be analogous as opposed to homologous? Species have a homologous trait if their ancestor had it and they inherited the trait genetically. The dolphin and squirrel could only have a homologous trait if a common ancestor also had that trait.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting post!
ReplyDeleteAs Aidan pointed out above, however, you have posted two analogous traits, since in both instances the common ancestor did not possess the trait of echolocation.
Your background information on echolocation was excellent, however.
I am deeply impressed that you made the connection of ecolocation between two creatures as different as dolphins and flying squirrels. If one was classing species simply on observable traits, one would never guess that dolphins are more closely related to fish than flying squirrels.
ReplyDelete