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Why Do Primates Have A Common Ancestor

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All primates have a common ancestor, from millions of years ago. Go further back, and you will find a common ancestor for all mammals. Then a common ancestor for all vertebrates, then animals, then all life on earth. How closely two organisms are related can be deduced by looking for homologous structures, structures that look similar and have a similar function. This proves that the organisms descended from a common ancestor. Station 1 contained multiple vertebrate skeletons. They all had homologous structures, including a vertebral column and a rib cage. This shows that all vertebrates are related and come from a common ancestor with a …show more content…

Mammals are a subcategory of vertebrates, and mammals are more closely related to each other than to other types of vertebrates. They are so closely related, in fact, that the pictures at Station 9, of embryos of different mammals, are nearly indistinguishable. They all seem to have developing vertebrae, heads, and limbs, that are identical. Some of these will be lost as the embryo develops. The human embryo will lose its tail, while the dolphin embryo will lose a large part of its limbs. Primates are a category of mammals, and apes are a type of primates. All apes come from a common ancestor, and that includes humans. Even humans speciated multiple times before the modern human, or homo sapiens, evolved, as evidenced by the skulls at Station 5. They were all skulls of different species of prehistoric human. The skull most similar to the modern skull belonged to the most recent species of human. There were times when two types of humans lived together. The species that was best adapted to fit the environment at the time survived, while the

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