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Dissected Lobster

This week we continue our theme of comparative anatomy by looking at this dissected lobster. This particular specimen was dissected to learn about its nervous system. Anatomists such as John Barclay collected specimens so they could study similarities between different species. There are two major ideas of comparative anatomy; analogous structures and homologous structures. Analogous structures are similar but appear in different organisms because of the environment they evolve in. For example sharks and whales have the same torpedo shape because of the environment that they lived in. Homologous structures are similar because of a shared ancestry that exists between species. For example, turtles, dolphins and humans all have a humerus bone, but evolution dictates that how they are formed