Why must biologists be able to distinguish homologous traits from analogous traits?

Answer 1

Since this is not my area of expertise, I searched Google under the key words "homologous analogous traits" to get these possible sources:

http://biology.unm.edu/ccouncil/Biology_203/Summaries/Phylogeny.htm
http://atheism.about.com/library/glossary/evolution/bldef_analogous.htm
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080305135600AAj33bl
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:C1z1CLfpWcoJ:www.biology.lsu.edu/webfac/kharms/Ch22OutlineFall07.doc+homologous+analogous+traits&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us&client=safari

Within each site, you can use the <Find> command to search for desired terms.

In the future, you can find the information you desire more quickly, if you use appropriate key words to do your own search.

I hope this helps. Thanks for asking.