Why do you think biologists use both the embryological development and the adult body plans to classify an animal?
My answer:
Biologists use both because there are many different phyla in the adult body plans. The embryological development help differentiate the classification.
Not 100% sure if I'm correct. help?
4 answers
that's similar to what I put of this question
I believe that scientists use both embryological development and adult body plans to classify an animal because of many reasons. The same embryological development can lead to different body plans. The same bodily adaptations on an adult, can be reached by multiple ways of embryological development. Some animals have different body plans as adults, but similar embryonic development, showing that the animals probably shared a common ancestor. Sometimes there are such obvious differences in adult body plans, that scientists have to rely on embryological development to show similar characteristics, such as gills, a notochord, and a post- tail, that might have disappeared as the animal matured and grew. Surprisingly, scientists use these small characteristics to classify different groups made of hundreds of species. There are also many animals that evolve similar characteristics or share certain adaptations to their adult body plan that help them survive in their environment. Convergent evolution is not uncommon, but just because the adult animals share similar characteristics, doesn’t always mean that they’re related. For example, bats are classified as Mammalia, while birds are classified as Aves, despite them both having two wings, replacing front limbs.
gonna be honest, paige's response is spot-on!
Yasss I agree