Why are analogous structures not useful for classifying species in an evolutionary context?
Analogous structures are similar structures in species that are not related. They do not suggest that the species have a recent common ancestor. They just “coincidentally” happen to have evolved to be similar because of similar factors in their environment. For example, both whales and dolphins have fins, but whales and dolphins are not closely related, they just live in similar environments (water). They reached the same point (fins) through different evolutionary paths.
