What are examples of homologous and analogous structures?

Question

What are examples of homologous and analogous structures?

Answer 1

Homologous: flippers and hands

Analogous: the wings on butterflies, bats, and birds

Analogous / Convergent Structures

Some biological characteristics are analogous (also called "convergent"), which means that they serve the same function in different species but they evolved independently rather than from the same embryological material or from the same structures in a common ancestor. An example of an analogous structure would be the wings on butterflies, bats, and birds.

Another important example would be the development of a camera-type eye in both mollusks and vertebrates.

Homologous Structures

Homologous structures, on the other hand, are characteristics which are shared by related species because they have been inherited in some way from a common ancestor. For example, the bones on the front fins of a whale are homologous to the bones in a human arm and both are homologous to the bones in a chimpanzee arm. The bones in all of these different body parts on different animals are basically the same bones, but their sizes are different and they serve slightly different functions in the animals where they are found.