Question

Snakes and worms have no legs and share a similar tube-like body structure. Describe how you could determine how closely related these two types of organisms are.

Answer 1

What do you think?

Answer 2

i dont know anything about this

Answer 3

i mean the only similarity i can think of is the structure of the body.

Answer 4

Right. And as it turns out, snakes and worms are NOT particularly closely related.

Answer 5

If they were close relatives, they'd have more in common, right? Another thing that you need to look at is what they have in common with other animals. Snakes, for example, have bones, spinal chords, scales, and the ability to lay eggs on land, which makes them more similar to other reptiles than to worms, which don't have those abilities. Worms have things in common with other organisms that they're more closely related to.

Answer 6

so pretty much the only thing they have in common is theyrre body structure, besides that theres no other similarity

Answer 7

they're*

Answer 8

i found this as a response earlier, is any of these things actually a similarity?"earthworm and snake have same body organisation that is tube withi n a tube and germ layers is also same that is triploblatic , both have bilateral symmetery, both show sexual dimorphisasm . unisexual, and cephalisation is found in both too"

Answer 9

DNA profiling. Or even more specific a microarray to completely compare each individually expressed gene for each species.

Answer 10

?

Answer 11

Ok, I will admit that worms and snakes have SOME things in common beyond the general body shape. All animals had a common ancestor, so we're all going to have a few things in common, even e.g. humans and jellyfish. There are also characteristics that evolved convergently. That means a characteristic showed up independently in two different parts of the tree of life without being inherited from a common ancestor. Eyes are a good example of this: humans have them, octopuses have them, but our common ancestors don't. They evolved separately.

When you're trying to figure out how closely related two species are, you have to look at both similarities and differences, and you DEFINITELY have to look at other organisms as well. Snakes have a LOT in common with other reptiles (and other vertebrates in general), and very little in common with worms (beyond the basic body shape, which is actually common in a lot of different groups). Worms also have a lot of special features that vertebrates (including snakes) don't have.

Answer 12

great explanation(: thank you , so my final answer is simmply that snakes and worms specifically do not have anything in common besides body structure.

Answer 13

More than that, they have lots in common with other animals that don't have that body structure, so even the body structure is unlikely to come from a common ancestor.

Answer 14

okay but your saying snakes have a lot of things in common with other animals, as well as worms haaving several things in coomon with other animals. but snakes and worms specifically only have the body structure, which is in the question itself.

Answer 15

More or less. But what I'm trying to say is you don't just look at snakes and worms when determining how closely related they are: you also have to look at other animals.

If, hypothetically, it turned out that snakes and worms actually did have more in common with each other than each group does with any other type of animal, that would indicate that they might be closely related.

As it turns out, there's one basic feature that worms and snakes share, and LOTS of things that snakes share with other reptiles. In the case of worms... well, it's a bit more complicated, but in any case, they've got more in common with other invertebrates than they do with snakes.

Answer 16

Well the most obvious relation is how they get from one place to another. Because they have no legs the may also have a similar organ structure (I may be biased on this one). But, snakes and worms are two relatively different animals along the lines of eating habits, mating habits, and even the environments in which they both live in.

Answer 17

thank youguys (: