comparative anatomy
Sign in to savestudy of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species
Research
74,363 papersvia PubMed
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- anatomy
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- topic's main category
- Category:Comparative anatomy
- Commons category
- Comparative anatomy
- described by source
- Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
via Wikidata · CC0
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Comparative anatomy studies similarities and differences in organisms. The image shows homologous bones in the upper limb of various vertebrates. Comparative anatomy is a study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (the evolution of species).
The science began in the classical era, continuing in the early modern period with work by Pierre Belon who noted the similarities of the skeletons of birds and humans.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “comparative anatomy” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.