What is the difference between homologous and analogous organs

For example, the bones in the wings of bats and birds have homologous structures Figure 1. Figure 1. Bat and bird wings are homologous structures, indicating that bats and birds share a common evolutionary past. Notice it is not simply a single bone, but rather a grouping of several bones arranged in a similar way. The more complex the feature, the more likely any kind of overlap is due to a common evolutionary past.

Imagine two people from different countries both inventing a car with all the same parts and in exactly the same arrangement without any previous or shared knowledge. That outcome would be highly improbable. However, if two people both invented a hammer, we can reasonably conclude that both could have the original idea without the help of the other.

The same relationship between complexity and shared evolutionary history is true for homologous structures in organisms. Some organisms may be very closely related, even though a minor genetic change caused a major morphological difference to make them look quite different. Similarly, unrelated organisms may be distantly related, but appear very much alike.

This usually happens because both organisms were in common adaptations that evolved within similar environmental conditions. When similar characteristics occur because of environmental constraints and not due to a close evolutionary relationship, it is an analogy or homoplasy.

For example, insects use wings to fly like bats and birds, but the wing structure and embryonic origin is completely different. In general science, it is a concept of anatomy in the biology stream, which refers to the animals having the features of similar functions but the condition here is that they are identified as homologous ones only if they have a similar origin since their evolution.

Morphology is the structural characteristics of an organism and it includes both external and internal features of the organism, from shape and color to bones and muscles. Now that particular study of internal parts is known as anatomy and homology is part of the anatomy. These analogous structures are the ones that are derived from different individuals of different species but serve the same function.

This can be explained with few examples. Another example would be the wings of a small bee and the wings of a hummingbird, here the structure, shape, size, and color of the wings of both the animals are different but the function served is absolutely the same which is to fly. It concludes now that homologous and analogous are two different parts of anatomy which is itself a stream of biology. These are different studies that specify various similarities and differences between many animals and other creatures.

These topics might occur to be quite confusing to some but once understood, they are the most interesting ones. Their understanding helps scientists to understand the internals of an organism better and even discover their new features without having perform any dangerous experiments on them.

Some organisms may be very closely related, even though a minor genetic change caused a major morphological difference to make them look quite different.

Similarly, unrelated organisms may be distantly related, but appear very much alike. This usually happens because both organisms were in common adaptations that evolved within similar environmental conditions. When similar characteristics occur because of environmental constraints and not due to a close evolutionary relationship, it is called an analogy or homoplasy. For example, insects use wings to fly like bats and birds, but the wing structure and embryonic origin is completely different.

These are called analogous structures Figure 2. Similar traits can be either homologous or analogous. Homologous structures share a similar embryonic origin; analogous organs have a similar function. For example, the bones in the front flipper of a whale are homologous to the bones in the human arm. These structures are not analogous. The wings of a butterfly and the wings of a bird are analogous but not homologous.

Some structures are both analogous and homologous: the wings of a bird and the wings of a bat are both homologous and analogous. Scientists must determine which type of similarity a feature exhibits to decipher the phylogeny of the organisms being studied. Figure 2. The c wing of a honeybee is similar in shape to a b bird wing and a bat wing, and it serves the same function.