UC Berkeley
Image Caption
Whales, lizards, humans, and birds all have the same basic limb layout. But how did such different animals wind up with the same sort of limb? The answer is that they inherited it from a common ancestor, just as cousins might inherit the same trait from their grandfather.
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This image is part of a series:
Homologous tetrapod limbs (1 of 6)
These four limbs all belong to tetrapods — animals with four legs.
Homologous tetrapod limbs (2 of 6)
Notice how these tetrapod limbs are similar to one another: They are all built from many individual bones. They are all spin-offs of the same basic bone layout: one long…
Homologous tetrapod limbs (4 of 6)
This evolutionary tree shows the relationships between different tetrapod lineages, all of which evolved from a single common ancestor. This 350 million year old animal, the first tetrapod, had limbs…
Homologous tetrapod limbs (5 of 6)
Not all similarity is homology. Since the octopus, sea star and grasshopper limbs don't have bones, they are not homologous to tetrapod limbs.