Question

2. List two characters/traits you share with ALL animals that are NOT shared by ANY plants. 2a. Consider the traits you listed in the previous question. Would any of them help you to distinguish an animal (e.g., you) from a plant (e.g., a pine tree)? Choose one: YES NO (highlight in color and bold) 2b. Consider the same animal traits. Would any of them, by themselves, help you to distinguish one species of animal from another species of animal? Choose one: YES NO (highlight in color and bold) If you chose "yes" for 2a and "no" for 2b, then you successfully used synapomorphies unique to animals to distinguish them from plants. The same traits, because all animals have them, cannot be used to distinguish among animal species. Note that "primitive" and "derived" are relative/comparative terms. With respect to plants, the animal traits you listed are synapomorphies. Animals have them; plants don't. The traits are thus derived with respect to plants. . With respect to all animals, however, the animal traits are symplesiomorphies All animals have them, so they are primitive to all animals This does not mean that plants are "more primitive" than animals. Remember that the evolutionary history of life is more accurately represented as a branching tree (all end points are equally evolved), not a ladder (which implies that evolution "makes things better" over time). Let's demonstrate by turning the previous questions around:

Answer 1

Please find the answers below:

Answer 2: The plants and animals are fundamentally different in nature and have strikingly different features. Although there are many differences between plants and animals, the two most striking features can be enlisted as below:

1. Inability to generate food: Whereas all animals are dependent upon other organisms for supply of their food, plants can synthesize their own food by capturing sunlight.
2. Giving birth to young ones: Whereas all animals give birth to their young ones, directly or by laying eggs, without undergoing any stage of dormancy, plants produce seeds which require a certain set of physical and environmental conditions to germinate.

Answer 2a: Yes. The traits enlisted above are easily recongizable and will help to distinguish between a pine tree and a human being.

Answer 2b: Yes. The trait of birth will help in distinguishing one animal from other. Whereas mammals give birth to their young ones, reptiles and birds lay egg. Thus, animals too can be distinguished from each other.