How do human embryos compare to embryos of other animals?

Answer 1

I am currently in a Biology class and we have been discussing this.

Do not be fooled by your biology textbook, because it most likely has the wrong information in it. You will probably see a picture of a human embryo compared to embryos of several other animals, and they will all look extremely similar.

Your textbook answer to this question should be that they are very similar in the earliest stages and then diversify as they develop (this shows evidence for common ancestry).

However, this has been proven false. (I happened upon your question while searching for information to support that this has been proven.) I would provide links to evidence and such if I had found them, but my search has literally just started.

Embryos are extremely different in the earliest stages. It is not until a later stage that they become similar. Therefore, this cannot provide evidence for common descent.

So human embryos compared to other animal embryos goes like this:

Very very different

then Similar

then Growing differences