What is organic evolution? How do embryological studies provide evidence for evolution?
Answers
The study of one type of evidence of evolution is called embryology, the study of embryos. An embryo is an unborn animal or human young in its earliest phases. Embryos of many diff. kinds of animals, birds, mammals, reptiles, fish etc look very similar and it is often diff. to tell them apart.
Organic evolution occurs because of changes in a species which appear generation after generation and accumulate to form a new species.
The embryology of different vertebrates provides very strong evidence of different
vertebrates which show striking similarities. There is an obvious similarity between embryos of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. A comparison of embryos
of vertebrates shows that all have gill slits even though they do not remain later in life(except in fish). This indicates a fundamental step which is common to all vertebrates and supports the idea of a common ancestor. Other features which do
not exist in the adult form but appear in the embryo include limb buds in dolphins and tail buds in humans.
This shows that species sharean ancestor, so their developmental processes occur similarly regardless of other changes which have occurred because of their
divergence.