Question

You have a potato, carrot, radish, sweet potato, tomato, and ginger bought from the market in your bag. Identify two vegetables to represent the correct homologous structures.

Answer 1

Hint: These structures do not have to look precisely the same, or have the same function. The most important part, as hinted by their name, is that they are structurally similar. They developed as a result of the adaptation to a different environment.

Complete answer:
Homologous structures are those structures that have the same origin but can perform the same or different functions in different organisms. Among the given sets of vegetables, carrot and radish are homologous structures as they are modifications of root for food storage. They contain different nutrients and have different functions.
Homologous structures inherited from a common ancestor as a result of divergent evolution. Other examples of homologous structure are the forelimbs of man and frogs apparently have the same basic design of bones but carry out different functions.
Analogous organs, on the other hand, are the organs having a different basic structural design but they are similar in the functions they perform. These structures develop in unrelated entities and exhibit convergent evolution. For instance, even though the wings of bats and birds look similar, the wings of bats have skin foldings whereas the wings of birds are covered with fur.

Note: Rudimentary organs such as the human tailbone, how much reduced from their functional state, are readily understood as signs of evolution, the explanation being that they were cut down by natural selection from functioning organs when their functions were no longer needed, but make no sense at all if species are considered to be fixed. The tailbone is homologous to the tails of other primates.