ANATOMY

Detailed explanation-1: -Embryology is important to understanding a species’ evolution, since some homologous structures can be seen only in embryo development. For example, all vertebrate embryos, from humans to chickens to fish, have a tail during early development, even if that tail does not appear in the fully developed organism.

Detailed explanation-2: -Embryology, the study of the development of the anatomy of an organism to its adult form, provides evidence for evolution as embryo formation in widely-divergent groups of organisms tends to be conserved.

Detailed explanation-3: -Comparative Embryology Similarities in embryos are likely to be evidence of common ancestry. All vertebrate embryos, for example, have gill slits and tails. All of the embryos in Figure 9.3. 4, except for fish, lose their gill slits by adulthood, and some of them also lose their tail.

Detailed explanation-4: -How does comparing the embryos of different organisms support the theory of evolution? The embryos of all organisms are identical. The stages of development of the embryos of different organisms are extremely similar, thereby suggesting common ancestors.