1b. The front limbs of a human and a primate are homologous and they both end in five digits even though their sizes may differ they both function the same.
1c. Darwinius masillae aka Ida was a common ancestor for humans and primates. It has the same characteristics as prosimians such as lemurs, but its closely related to humans.
1d. 
2a. Birds and insects have analogous structures such as their wings. They serve the same function, but come from different origins.
2b. The wings of birds and insects serve the same function such as flying, but insects have evolved separately whereas the birds are essentially modern day dinosaurs.
2d.
This will become more apparent in the next two weeks, but humans ARE primates, so you are essentially comparing the same organism here. Remember that homologous traits not only have a common ancestry (which you have here) but they also exhibit differences in structure tracable to differences in function and environment. You are describing only similarities in structure.
ReplyDeleteAn example that would have worked here is the digit length between gibbons an humans. Gibbons have very long digits (and tiny thumbs) because they use their hands for brachiation locomotion. Humans have shorter digits (and longer thumbs) because the primary function of their hands is for manipulating objects. Different structure due to different function with common genetic ancestry = homologous structures.
Wings on birds and insects are a valid analgous comparison, but it would have helped to have an expanded explanation of the similarities and the convergent evolution that produced those similarities. Likewise, analogous traits need evidence that there is no common genetic relationship. What do we know about bird evolution that helps us confirm this? Yes, birds are sometimes called 'living dinosaurs" but how does this provide evidence that birds evolved their wings separately from their common ancestor with insects?