Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Analogous traits between and Human and Octopus
In
comparing two different species such as, a human Eye and an Octopus Eye we find
analogous traits. A human is what we call a land dweller, and live its whole
life on the land. Octopuses are from the sea and live their whole life
underwater. Both a human and octopus share different diets and different
environmental stresses. The octopus and the human are not closely
related and reside far away from each other on the phylogenetic tree of life. The
eye of a human is very similar in structure to the eye of the octopus. In fact,
the octopus eye is superior to the human eye in that it does not have a
"blind spot". The diagram below shows the similarities of evolutional
structures between the two eyes of a human and octopus. Both eyes are round and
have the same structural traits. Both have an eyelid, cornea, pupil, iris,
ciliary muscle, lens, retina, optic nerve and optic ganglion. Being that both
of these species are far different from each other, it is amazing that they
have developed such a unique trait that is very similar to each other. Both use
the eye to visualize predators and stay away from danger. The human eye and
octopus eye are used to hunt for prey in two different environment s. Being
deep underwater the Octopus must be able to see in dark to little light
habitats, while the humans must be able to see in bright habitats in order to
survive. This can be the reason why both
species developed an eye to help advance its survival in habitats they live in.
I would assume that many years ago the specie that was the common ancestor
between the octopus and human had analogous traits. The specie had to of,
because when the ancestral organisms split and down the path of evolving into
humans or octopus the ability to develop eyeballs followed each new organisms
this obtaining analogous traits between two separate species that are different
in habitat, diet, and environmental stresses.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Michael,
ReplyDeleteI never would have thought that the human eye and octopus eye would be so similar since most people would assume that we are a completely separate set of species. But it is interesting to know that somehow, we are intertwined with such an interesting sea species.
Thanks Hillary,
ReplyDeleteI thought is was very interesting that a creature who lives in the deepest parts of the ocean, who rarley views light would have an eyeball similar to a humans eyeball. It would be interesting to know what a octopus's vision looks like.
The things I liked about your project was that you split up the homologous and analogous posts into one and two, that way the reader can just focus on one at a time. You provided a lot of information and wrote it in paragraph form so it was easy for me to understand and get to the heart of the matter. I also like how you concluded some of your own insight as to the nature of the origin of the eyeball with regard to both human and octopus. I also am appreciative of those who try to choose an unlikely, unique pairing, in other words, someone who can challenge themselves and in doing so will fascinate others because of their ability to go beyond what is accepted as par at best.
ReplyDeleteVery good discussion on your homologous traits. Excellent discussion, description and analysis.
ReplyDeleteThe eye is one of my favorite examples of an analogous trait. Eyes have evolved independently numerous times in the animal world, including in the octopus, which actually has a better adaptive structure than we do! Good discussion on the ancestral issue. Very well done.
For the next blog post, make sure you just submit one post instead of multiple. It makes reading and grading much easier! Can you also change the font color? Something a little brighter? Thanks!
Well explained
ReplyDelete