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Similar Skeletons


Real World Question
Humans and other mammals share many similar characteristics, including similar skeletal structures. Think about all the different types of mammals you have seen or read about. Tigers, dogs, and household cats are meat-eating mammals. Whales and dolphins live in water. Primates, which include gorillas, chimpanzees, and humans, walk on two legs. Mammals live in different environments, eat different types of food, and even look different, but they all have hair, possess the ability to maintain fairly constant body temperatures, and have similar skeletal structures. Which skeletal structures are similar among humans and other mammals? How many bones do you have in your hand? What types of bones are they? Do other mammals have similar skeletal structures? Make a hypothesis about the skeletal structures that humans and other have in common.

Goals

  • Identify a skeletal structure in the human body.


  • Write a list of mammals with which you are familiar.


  • Compare the identified human skeletal structure to a skeletal structure in each of the mammals.


  • Determine if the mammal skeletal structure that you selected is similar to the human skeletal structure you identified.


  • Describe how the mammal skeletal structure is similar to or different from the skeletal structure in a human.

Data Sources

Make a Plan
  1. Choose a specific part of the human skeletal structure to study, such as your hand, foot, skull, leg, or arm.


  2. List four to six different mammals.


  3. Do these mammals possess skeletal structures similar to the human skeleton? Remember, the mammals' skeletons can be similar to that of the human, but the structures can have different functions.


  4. Compare and Contrast the mammal and human skeletal structures. Are the types of bone similar? Is the number of bones the same? Where are these structures located?
Follow Your Plan
  1. Make sure your teacher approves your plan before you proceed.
Analyze Your Data
  1. Describe how each mammal's skeletal structure similar to or different from the human skeletal structure you chose?


  2. In the data table provided describe how the structures are alike or different.
Conclude and Apply
  1. Do other students agree with your conclusions? Do the structures studied have similar function in the human and the mammals you researched?

Post your data in the table provided.

Skeletal Comparisons
Human Structure
Animal Structure
Comparison
Human Structure
Animal Structure
Comparison
Human Structure
Animal Structure
Comparison
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