Whale Flippers and Fish Fins: Are They Evolving from a Common Ancestor?
Whale flippers and fish fins are analogous structures. They serve similar purposes but evolved separately. Flippers came from tetrapod limbs, which are derived from Sarcopterygian fins. Therefore, they do not share a recent common ancestor. This illustrates convergent evolution, which adapts different species to aquatic environments. This common ancestor likely possessed simple, fin-like structures for … Read more